A Sustainable Energy Scenario for the United States: Year 2050

Bruce Tonn, Paul Frymier, Jared Graves and Jessa Meyers
Additional contact information
Bruce Tonn: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA
Paul Frymier: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA
Jared Graves: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA
Jessa Meyers: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37916, USA

Sustainability, 2010, vol. 2, issue 12, 1-31

Abstract: This paper presents a scenario depicting life in the United States in the year 2050. The scenario is designed to achieve energy sustainability: fossil fuels and corn ethanol have been replaced by other sustainable and inexhaustible energy sources. The scenario describes the disappearance of the suburbs, replaced by a mix of high density urban centers and low density eco-communities. A suite of advanced technologies and significant social changes underpin the scenario. Analysis of the energy implications inherent in the scenario suggest that total US energy consumption would be around 100 quads in 2050, approximately the same as in the year 2010 despite a forecasted population increase of 130 million.

Keywords: sustainable energy systems; national energy portfolios; scenario analysis; futures methods; obligations to future generations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/12/3650/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/12/3650/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:2:y:2010:i:12:p:3650-3680:d:10347

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().