Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson explains how the areas of Los Angeles that were recently hit by fire have now the opportunity to reduce energy bills and reconstruction costs by rebuilding only all-electric homes.
From pv magazine Global
On January 18, 2025, I was fortunate, thanks to a non-profit Empowered by Light and a retired fire captain, Richard Birt, to help deliver portable solar-battery systems, to firefighters near the front line of the Malibu fire. The firefighters were very appreciative, because their only source of electricity was their fire truck, and drawing too much power from the truck for charging chain-saw batteries and communication equipment could prevent the truck from functioning. Plus, the truck cannot be brought off road to near the fire line, whereas the solar-battery system can.
It was devastating driving mile after mile along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway, seeing one burned-out-structure after another. Families displaced. Memories lost. History erased. From the ashes, though, there is an opportunity to do what should be done all over America and the world. That opportunity is to build all new homes and businesses with only electricity and no fossil gas, contrary to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ January 13 Executive Order allowing residents to rebuild homes “as they were” with fossil gas.
Avoiding gas eliminates the chance a ruptured gas pipe will explode, like in San Bruno, California, in 2010, killing 8, injuring 58, and destroying 38 homes. Avoiding underground gas also facilitates the installation of underground electric lines. Underground electric lines are needed to eliminate the chance they will cause sparks like the ones that likely caused the Eaton fire. Not burning gas also eliminates benzene (a carcinogen) and other health-affecting air pollutants from people’s homes and death from carbon monoxide poisoning due to faulty appliances running on gas. It also reduces the need for the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, which blew open for 112 days from 2015-2016, spewing 97,000 metric tons of methane plus other gases into the air. Lastly, reducing gas reduces the need for the 50,000 new oil and gas wells drilled each year in Central North America.
Making new construction buildings all electric eliminates gas from them, reducing up-front and long-term costs. There is no reason to have both electricity and fossil gas in a building at the same time. There is nothing gas does that electricity doesn’t do better. Contractors want people to include both electricity and gas, because contractors know they will be paid more for the additional work and equipment needed with gas. Wasted costs due to installing gas include a gas hookup fee, trenching for gas pipes, the pipes themselves, gas appliances, a gas meter, and a carbon monoxide monitor. Building owners with electricity alone do not need gas. They need only electricity and electric appliances. But the main electric appliances use much less energy than equivalent gas appliances. For example, an electric heat pump for air and water heating, air conditioning, and clothes drying uses 67% to 80% less energy than a gas heater for the same purposes. An electric induction cooktop uses 62% less energy than a gas cooktop.
Building owners can reduce costs more by installing rooftop solar and batteries and/or taking energy efficiency measures in their buildings. There are at least 11 reasons why rooftop solar reduces costs for everyone. Among them, it reduces the need for expensive California grid electricity, reduces wildfire risk by reducing the need for electrical lines, reduces land needs, and reduces pollution from grid electricity. Rooftop solar also provides electricity during a grid blackout. It cools buildings during summer by converting sunlight to electricity. It eliminates the need for expensive roofing material, and it serves as an additional source of grid electricity. Batteries shift excess daytime solar electricity to the night, avoiding the payment by homeowners of high evening electricity rates. Efficiency measures (sealing doors and windows, using LED lights and energy-efficient appliances) reduce the need for any electricity.
Taking these measures can eliminate a building occupant’s fossil gas bill, electricity bill, and gasoline bill. A solar and battery system with subsidy pays itself off after five years due to both upfront cost savings and energy-cost savings. Without subsidy, the payback time is about nine years, while solar is warrantied for 25 years.
Los Angeles has an opportunity to do the same by rebuilding only all-electric homes – reduce upfront costs by eliminating the wasteful installation of fossil gas; reduce customer bills for fossil gas and electricity in new homes and vehicle fuel; reduce fire risk from transmission-line sparks and gas pipeline ruptures; and reduce health, environmental, and climate damage due to fossil gas.
Mark Z. Jacobson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and the Author of “No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology can Save our Climate and Clean our Air.”
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