The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says the benefits of lower emissions are greater than most previous estimates.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a new methodology for estimating the value of the climate and air quality benefits of wind and solar energy. A report detailing the results of an analysis of data from 2019 to 2022 using the methodology concludes that wind and solar energy generation delivered $249 billion in climate and air quality health benefits over that period.
Renewable energy advocates claim that the leveled electricity costs (LCOE) does not tell the whole story when comparing the economics of wind and solar energy generation versus fossil fuel sources. Emissions from natural gas and coal-fired power plants in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) affect the climate and air quality in ways that should be taken into account when evaluating renewable energy sources. the benefits of energy.
Drawing on publicly available data on electricity generation, the researchers divide the continental United States into ten regions in which wind and solar energy supplied at least 3% of electricity demand. An eleventh region around Tennessee was excluded because the thresholds were not met. The methodology measures daily generation from suitable sources (solar, wind, gas and coal) per region and an annual average of emissions per region. The reason for averaging emissions is that there is generally a significant delay in the availability of daily emissions data.
According to the report, the generation-weighted average of all regions in 2022 shows that 1.0 MWh of wind energy offsets 0.89 MWh of fossil generation (0.29 MWh of coal generation and 0.60 MWh of gas generation); and that 1.0 MWh of solar energy generation offsets 0.76 MWh of fossil generation (0.14 MWh of coal generation and 0.62 MWh of gas generation).
The offsets are not one-for-one due to transmission losses from solar and wind energy, which are typically located further from consumers than fossil fuel sources, and mitigation issues. Also because part of the generation is absorbed by battery storage, which is not taken into account in the analysis method. In addition, other sources, such as nuclear power and hydropower, are not typically displaced by solar and wind power generation and thus were not taken into account, the researchers said.
To determine the dollar value of the climate and air quality benefits from reduced emissions, the researchers used published reports in scientific journals: a 2022 paper in Nature to determine the social cost of carbon; and a 2019 article in Environmental Research Letters that evaluated the social costs of pollutants such as SO2 and NOx.
With generation offsets and the social costs of emissions in hand, Berkeley Lab researchers were able to calculate the health benefits of renewable generation. The researchers found that the 435.6 TWh of wind energy produced in the US in 2022 prevented 228,798 kilotons (KT) of CO2, 116 KT of SO2 and 129 KT of NOx emissions, resulting in total health benefits worth $62.4 billion. Solar energy provided 116.1 TWh of generation, preventing 45,729 KT CO2, 15 KT SO2 and 28 KT NOx emissions, delivering $11.6 billion in health benefits.
According to the researchers, their new methodology shows that the benefits of renewable generation are much greater than previously estimated and could be a strong argument for increasing the penetration of wind and solar power in the United States. Furthermore, the analysis tools can be applied anywhere where sufficient data is available.
“The relatively simple data required for our approach raises the possibility that it can be adapted to other regions of the world,” the researchers said.
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