Renewables and decarbonization: Studies of California, Wisconsin and Germany

Brick, Stephen; Thernstrom, Samuel

doi:10.1016/j.tej.2016.03.001

Cited by 26 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Two other scenarios resulted in negative net E&I CO 2 emissions. The (vii) 100% renewable primary energy case was designed to test the much-debated feasibility and cost of an E&I system based entirely on renewable energy (Breyer et al, 2018;Brick & Thernstrom, 2016;Clack et al, 2017;Jacobson et al, 2015Jacobson et al, , 2017Shaner et al, 2018). By 2050, this scenario has no nuclear power remaining, no fossil fuel remaining, even for feedstocks, and no geologic carbon sequestration.…”

Section: Agu Advancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon‐Neutral Pathways for the United States

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C points to the need for carbon neutrality by mid-century. Achieving this in the United States in only 30 years will be challenging, and practical pathways detailing the technologies, infrastructure, costs, and tradeoffs involved are needed. Modeling the entire U.S. energy and industrial system with new analysis tools that capture synergies not represented in sector-specific or integrated assessment models, we created multiple pathways to net zero and net negative CO 2 emissions by 2050. They met all forecast U.S. energy needs at a net cost of 0.2-1.2% of GDP in 2050, using only commercial or near-commercial technologies, and requiring no early retirement of existing infrastructure. Pathways with constraints on consumer behavior, land use, biomass use, and technology choices (e.g., no nuclear) met the target but at higher cost. All pathways employed four basic strategies: energy efficiency, decarbonized electricity, electrification, and carbon capture. Least-cost pathways were based on >80% wind and solar electricity plus thermal generation for reliability. A 100% renewable primary energy system was feasible but had higher cost and land use. We found multiple feasible options for supplying low-carbon fuels for non-electrifiable end uses in industry, freight, and aviation, which were not required in bulk until after 2035. In the next decade, the actions required in all pathways were similar: expand renewable capacity 3.5 fold, retire coal, maintain existing gas generating capacity, and increase electric vehicle and heat pump sales to >50% of market share. This study provides a playbook for carbon neutrality policy with concrete near-term priorities. Plain Language Summary We created multiple blueprints for the United States to reach zero or negative CO 2 emissions from the energy system by 2050 to avoid the most damaging impacts of climate change. By methodically increasing energy efficiency, switching to electric technologies, utilizing clean electricity (especially wind and solar power), and deploying a small amount of carbon capture technology, the United States can reach zero emissions without requiring changes to behavior. Cost is about $1 per person per day, not counting climate benefits; this is significantly less than estimates from a few years ago because of recent technology progress. Models with more detail than used in the past revealed unexpected synergies, counterintuitive results, and tradeoffs. The lowest-cost electricity systems get >80% of energy from wind and solar power but need other resources to provide reliable service. Eliminating fossil fuel use altogether is possible but higher cost. Restricting biomass use and land for renewables is possible but could require nuclear power to compensate. All blueprints for the United States agree on the key tasks for the 2020s: increasing the capacity of wind and solar power by 3.5 times, retiring coal plants, and increasing electric vehicle and electric heat pum...

show abstract

Section: Agu Advancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon‐Neutral Pathways for the United States

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, a stark difference in views persists as to the cost of such a transition. Some studies have shown that high penetration of VRE can substantially increase average cost of electricity [5][6][7][8][9][10] , as additional investments are needed for reserve capacity and storage 11 . Other studies found that such a transition will lower the average cost of electricity, due to the declining prices of photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, and electricity storage systems [12][13][14][15][16][17] .…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies on the cost of decarbonising electricity are, however, based on the simulations for one year or a few continuous years [5][6][7][14][15][16][17] . As these studies only provide a snapshot of possible future electricity system, they offer limited insights on the dynamics of the system and associated costs along the transition.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decarbonisation scenarios of the U.S. electricity system and their costs

Qiu¹,

Cohen²,

Suh³

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Decarbonising electricity is crucial for climate change mitigation, while understanding its economic implications has been a challenge. Previous analyses primarily rely on levelised cost or single-year optimization, which fail to account for the complex spatiotemporal dynamics of capacity expansion and dispatch decisions. Here, we present a regionally resolved national model that considers such dynamics and quantifies the cost of decarbonising the U.S. electricity system under a set of possible scenarios. The result shows that, compared to a business-as-usual scenario, reducing 80% CO2 emission by 2050 relative to 2005 level would incur, depending on the scenarios, $220~$490 billion additional costs (present value in 2020 US$, equivalent to ¢0.15~¢0.34 kWh-1) to the electric sector during 2020–2050, with regional costs ranging -¢0.08~¢0.51 kWh-1. When compared with the mitigated CO2, these additional costs equal to $10 and $37 per tCO2 reduced, which are well below the social cost of carbon in the literature.

show abstract

“…Tables 3 and 4 show the growth rate based on the year 2017, wind energy showed growth due to the increases in rates, the PV generation was strengthened due to the FiT tariffs implemented and smart metering (Christoforidis et al, 2013), and generation with biomass presents significant contributions in generation despite not having a high installed capacity such as wind resources and PV, achieving the highest efficiency when using different technologies (Brick & Thernstrom, 2016;BMWi, 2018).…”

Section: Growth In Renewable Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analysis of Electricity Generation With Renewable Resources in Germany

Merchán

Gutiérrez²,

Montenegro

et al. 2020

IJEEP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Germany has an experience of renewable energy policies that encourages their usage, achieving technological migration and the redesign of its power generation matrix, achieving 112 GW of renewable resources at 2017. The research presents an analysis between the energy policies and the electricity statistics, the results forecast a date in which they will reach the goal of 50% of annual generation of total electric power by renewable sources, a goal set in 2012.

show abstract

Renewables and decarbonization: Studies of California, Wisconsin and Germany

Cited by 26 publications

References 1 publication

Carbon‐Neutral Pathways for the United States

Carbon‐Neutral Pathways for the United States

Decarbonisation scenarios of the U.S. electricity system and their costs

An Analysis of Electricity Generation With Renewable Resources in Germany

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About