Co-production as an Economically Feasible Pathway to Economy-Wide Electrification
by Cody E. Finke, Theodore G. Albertson, Ian McKay, Aravindh Rajan, Eric McFarland, Annelise Gill-Wiehl, Daniel M. Kammen, and Gernot Wagner
Abstract:
A major proposal to transition the global economy away from fossil fuels is to “electrify everything” allowing for low-carbon power production to replace fossil fuel oxidation. Here we conduct a techno-economic analysis of a diverse set of electrification technologies to determine the technical feasibility and economic cost of full-scale electrification. We find that battery-electric vehicles can allow for cost-neutral electrification of transportation; however, neither hydrogen nor CO2-based e-fuels are economically sustainable. For building-use, electric resistive heating, electric lighting, and heat pumps are sufficiently low-cost to displace fueled processes. Industry is hardest to electrify due to unfavorable thermodynamic limits of carbon-neutral chemistries and because fueled processes operate near their thermodynamic energy minimums. Electrification, thus, would add costs when thermochemistry is replaced by single-product electrochemistry. However, industrial electrification could be cost neutral using multi-product pathways, once scale economies allow for sufficient capital expenditure reductions relative to single product chemistry.
Draft: "Co-production as an Economically Feasible Pathway to Economy-Wide Electrification" (21 August 2025)
