All-electric industrial processes

Corporations are slow[1] to upgrade machinery powered by fossil fuels to electric alternatives, fearing complexity and backlash over higher costs and prices.

Decarbonizing heavy industries such as steel[2] and cement[3] is constrained by major technical hurdles, and meaningful progress will occur only over timelines spanning decades.

Other large corporations have pledged to cut emissions, to the extent that they can secure sufficient grid power[4] to electrify outdated equipment such as ovens, auxiliary power units, and machinery currently powered by natural gas or diesel fuel.

Smaller firms face significant financial barriers to rapid electrification. Passing these costs on would reduce their competitiveness. As a result, they generally wait for existing machinery to reach the end of its lifespan before investing in energy-efficient replacements.

Fossil-fuel-based machinery is still becoming more efficient. Yet industrialized countries should fully abandon it, since other countries would otherwise replicate this “dirty” model in a global economy that could double in size by 2100.[5]

The electrification of all industrial machinery will require new clean power plants, possibly built on-site.

To provide the capacity required for industrial electrification, the electrical grid should be upgraded first:
• Strengthen the national electrical grid to handle fluctuations in electricity supply and demand.
• Enact legislative measures to dismantle electrical monopolies, allowing increased competition on the existing grid.
• Commit substantial public and private investment to new clean power plants.
• Streamline regulatory approval for clean power-plant construction permits, including on-site generation for corporations.
• Allow corporations to sell excess electricity back to the grid, since battery storage remains expensive, supported by “smart-grid” capabilities that can bill both electricity inflows and outflows.