Whoops, left out solar concentrator plants.
I think they are great at rehabilitated old industrial and mining sites, these are already devestated areas. They pay for the enviro clean up.
Put up silicon fabs, foundries, glass and metal recycling plants all powered by direct concentrating solar furnaces with PV and steam turbine electric cogeneration in suitable desert regions where solar is abundant.
Water desalinization and waste water recycling using solar collectors can be used to cogenerate pV electricity and heat also. A 4 foot by 5 foot area of collector space can provide clean water daily for each person in a hot desert climate.
Designed into roof mounted electric solar panels this water recycling could solve the looming water crisis.
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/09/another_roadmap.html#comment-22120140
What they omit is the fact that geothermal heat pump heating and cooling and conservation from super efficient lighting and appliances could save enough juice to charge all the cars. And car mileage can be vastly reduced by bikes, car pooling, and coordinated commuter bus and rail.
Doubling generation capacity is not necessary to go to plugin transportation.
Solar, especially the new higher efficiency solar cells, on all the suitable roof space and over parking lots and highways, and medium and small wind systems can provide 1/2 of our present electric use.
The other half can come from huge wind systems on the northern great plains, and huge wind/wave power floating platforms off the three US coasts.
This is all doable for less than that trillion dollar distribution grid upgrade. This is distributed generation and storage with whole regions down to individual homes independent of the larger grid in emergencies.
This plan is too heavy with liquid fuel dependence too. Go battery, forget the coal to gasoline route. Forget nukes, they are way too expensive.
For instance, half of our present capacity, 300,000 mw, would cost 2 trillion alone at current nuke plant cost estimates. And couldn't be done for 50 years, if it could be done at all.
With wind, wave, and solar it will cost less than the trillion dollar distribution upgrade. 100 billion in subsidies taken from corporate welfare per year, and directed to this renewable energy effort would do the job within 10 years.
One third of the cost from (corporate) welfare savings and the rest from private investment.
For instance, if you install a 12,000 dollar solar system you get a 4000 dollar tax break over a few years. The money that used to go to exxonmob and friends goes to help pay for your solar system instead. Then your solar system will pay for itself in electric bill savings in 8 years.
In the case of huge wind or wind/wave power installations. A utility company will put up 10 50mw wind machines out on the plains then get a rebate that pays for a third of the system. Money that once went to exxonmob goes to your local utility to save you money on your electric bill by importing clean, cheap wind electricity.