Alabama

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To get to zero by 2050, Alabama must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in Alabama

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)  equivalent (MTCO2e ) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

Alabama's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    3% of Alabama's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps 
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves 

    ...in all of Alabama's 2.5 million buildings.

    In fact, 60.6% of appliances in buildings in Alabama are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 968,000 dirty buildings in Alabama. That's around 36,000 per year.

    Percent of Appliances Electrified electrifiedA chart showing the share of Appliances Electrified that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.60.58% have been electrified, and the remaining 39.42% are fossil fuel based.Appliances Electrified: 60.6%Needed This Year: 1.5%Not Yet: 38.0%Source: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 3% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    24% of Alabama's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 2.0 million vehicles in Alabama and 3,000 are already electric (0.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 2.0 million gas-powered vehicles. That's around 75,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles Electrified electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles Electrified that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.9% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles Electrified: 0.1%Needed This Year: 3.7%Not Yet: 96.2%Source: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 24% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    38% of Alabama's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Alabama

    5 coal plants

    Name: Barry County: Mobile Megawatt Capacity: 2,842 Utility: Alabama Power Co

    Barry
    Mobile County
    2,842 MW

    Name: James H Miller Jr County: Jefferson Megawatt Capacity: 2,822 Utility: Alabama Power Co

    James H Miller Jr
    Jefferson County
    2,822 MW

    Name: E C Gaston County: Shelby Megawatt Capacity: 2,034 Utility: Alabama Power Co

    E C Gaston
    Shelby County
    2,034 MW

    Name: Gorgas County: Walker Megawatt Capacity: 1,417 Utility: Alabama Power Co

    Gorgas
    Walker County
    1,417 MW

    Name: Charles R Lowman County: Washington Megawatt Capacity: 1,265 Utility: PowerSouth Energy Cooperative

    Charles R Lowman
    Washington County
    1,265 MW

    25 gas plants

    Name: Plant H. Allen Franklin County: Lee Megawatt Capacity: 2,684 Utility: Southern Power Co

    Plant H. Allen Franklin
    Lee County
    2,684 MW

    Name: E B Harris Generating Plant County: Autauga Megawatt Capacity: 2,534 Utility: Southern Power Co

    E B Harris Generating Plant
    Autauga County
    2,534 MW

    Name: Colbert County: Colbert Megawatt Capacity: 1,826 Utility: Tennessee Valley Authority

    Colbert
    Colbert County
    1,826 MW

    Name: Greene County County: Greene Megawatt Capacity: 1,288 Utility: Alabama Power Co

    Greene County
    Greene County
    1,288 MW

    ...and 21 more

    1 oil plant

    Name: Crestwood Dothan County: Houston Megawatt Capacity: 14 Utility: Crestwood Corp

    Crestwood Dothan
    Houston County
    14 MW

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 7,000 megawatt (MW)  of wind power and 8,000 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Alabama would need to install about 2,000 turbines.

    Since Alabama already has 0 MW of wind and 58 MW of solar, that's 7,000 MW of wind power we need to build and 8,000 MW of solar power. That's around 246 MW of wind power and 298 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of MWs of Wind and Solar Built electrifiedA chart showing the share of MWs of Wind and Solar Built that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 99% are fossil fuel based.MWs of Wind and Solar Built: 1.0%Needed This Year: 3.7%Not Yet: 95.3%

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 38% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 34%🔌 Power: 38%🚗 Transport: 24%🏠 Buildings: 3%

    The last 34% of Alabama's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification  doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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