"President Joe Biden pledged on January 27 to conjure "a carbon pollution–free electricity sector" into existence "no later than 2035."
What would that involve?
According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. electric power sector generated 4,127 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2019.
... 38.4 percent was produced from natural gas,
23.4 percent from coal,
19.6 percent from nuclear,
7.1 percent from wind,
7.0 percent from hydropower,
1.7 percent from solar power, and
2.8 percent from miscellaneous sources.
How many power generation units does it take to generate that electricity?
The country has 668 coal-fired units (producing 20.8 percent of America's summer capacity),
Non-fossil-fuel energy amounts to 31.3 percent of America's available capacity;
wind and solar account for 15.1 percent.
... but wind and solar produced only 8.8 percent of power actually generated, indicating that wind and solar generate power at roughly half their rated capacities.
After all, the wind does not always blow and the sun doesn't always shine.
... Back in June, researchers at Berkeley's Center for Environmental Public Policy outlined a plan for getting the U.S. to 90 percent carbon-free electricity nationwide by 2035.
... The Berkeley researchers estimate that this plan would cost $1.7 trillion.
They would keep some natural gas plants to back up periodic shortfalls in renewable power production, but they expect that we would burn less than 70 percent of the natural gas we currently use."