The “fastest and most efficient transition” to renewable energy requires using natural gas for backup power, according to a new report.
The report, published Monday by the nonprofit Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, says that natural gas should not supplement clean power forever, as the end goal is to reach net-zero emissions. But it finds that relying solely on wind and solar energy production, which varies day to day and seasonally, could cause grid instability without a sufficient backup source.
“We don’t want to be in a position 20 years from now where we’ve committed to wind and solar and, suddenly, we don’t have power,” said Robin Gaster, the report’s author and director of research at ITIF’s Center for Clean Energy Innovation. “We have to keep the lights on.”
Wind and solar power can falter when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun is behind clouds. The report asserts that natural gas is the ideal backup power source because it can be ramped up to full capacity quickly and the infrastructure already exists to deliver it at a large scale.
