Five Friday Facts/Infographic: Obama’s 2035 Energy Goals

Can the U.S. really get 80% of its electricity needs from clean energy sources as proposed by president Obama? We currently get about 50% of our electricity from coal fired power plants, so roughly two-thirds of that coal based energy would have to change to clean energy sources in order to reach that goal.

Here’s what it would take in terms of clean energy – if we were to rely on only one of these energy sources – to replace that amount of coal.

Click through for a graphic provided by Climate Central that helps illustrate how far we currently are from such an energy mix.

• 243 new dams (Hoover Dam Size)
• 4 million acres of new solar panels
• 65 new nuclear power plants
• 200,000 new wind turbines
• 45 natural gas power plants

They are all tough, but if I had to put my money on something, I’d choose natural gas or wind turbines as the most realistic.