Power Grid Load-Balancing, GHG Emissions, and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Energy Integration and Electrification

Power Grid Load-Balancing, GHG Emissions, and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Energy Integration and Electrification PDF Author: Siavash Ebrahimi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781339528540
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
Continued release of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily emitted from combustion of fossil fuels, will result in further global warming, increasing the risk of severe and irreversible impacts for humans and ecosystems. An integrated mitigation approach combining deployment of energy efficiency measures, decarbonizing electricity generation sector and transformation of end-use fuels can be a feasible and cost-effective solution. State of California has adopted deep GHG emission reduction target of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, but decarbonizing the power supply sector cannot lead to such aggressive emission reductions by itself. Therefore, widespread electrification, i.e. switching direct fossil fuel use to electricity, is essential for meeting deep emission reduction targets.The infrastructural transformation and the technology path required for achieving this ambitious GHG reduction goal are not well understood. This thesis analyzes grid and emission impacts of electrifying end-use sectors while decarbonizing power generation, using detailed modeling of infrastructure stocks and economic dispatch of electric grid. A set of scenarios are developed to study the impacts of electrification where each end-use sector is electrified based on the electrification potential and feasibility of implementation using the available electric technologies. In order to accommodate higher statewide electricity demand due to electrification, the electricity generation sector is decarbonized through installing higher levels of renewable power.Results show that decarbonizing power sector without electrifying end-use sectors reduce GHG emissions only by 8 percent, while electrification of end-use sectors alongside decarbonizing electricity generation yields up to 40 percent GHG emission reductions compared to 1990 levels.

Power Grid Load-Balancing, GHG Emissions, and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Energy Integration and Electrification

Power Grid Load-Balancing, GHG Emissions, and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Energy Integration and Electrification PDF Author: Siavash Ebrahimi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781339528540
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
Continued release of greenhouse gas emissions, primarily emitted from combustion of fossil fuels, will result in further global warming, increasing the risk of severe and irreversible impacts for humans and ecosystems. An integrated mitigation approach combining deployment of energy efficiency measures, decarbonizing electricity generation sector and transformation of end-use fuels can be a feasible and cost-effective solution. State of California has adopted deep GHG emission reduction target of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, but decarbonizing the power supply sector cannot lead to such aggressive emission reductions by itself. Therefore, widespread electrification, i.e. switching direct fossil fuel use to electricity, is essential for meeting deep emission reduction targets.The infrastructural transformation and the technology path required for achieving this ambitious GHG reduction goal are not well understood. This thesis analyzes grid and emission impacts of electrifying end-use sectors while decarbonizing power generation, using detailed modeling of infrastructure stocks and economic dispatch of electric grid. A set of scenarios are developed to study the impacts of electrification where each end-use sector is electrified based on the electrification potential and feasibility of implementation using the available electric technologies. In order to accommodate higher statewide electricity demand due to electrification, the electricity generation sector is decarbonized through installing higher levels of renewable power.Results show that decarbonizing power sector without electrifying end-use sectors reduce GHG emissions only by 8 percent, while electrification of end-use sectors alongside decarbonizing electricity generation yields up to 40 percent GHG emission reductions compared to 1990 levels.

GHG Emission Benefits and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Integration and Electrification

GHG Emission Benefits and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Integration and Electrification PDF Author: Siavash Ebrahimi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric power
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description


GHG Emission Benefits and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Integration and Electrification

GHG Emission Benefits and Air Quality Impacts of California Renewable Integration and Electrification PDF Author: Siavash Ebrahimi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric power
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Spatially and Temporally Resolved Emissions Impacts of Renewable Energy Integration Into the Electric Grid

Spatially and Temporally Resolved Emissions Impacts of Renewable Energy Integration Into the Electric Grid PDF Author: Alicia Tan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303485923
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
In order to address air quality and greenhouse gas impacts of power generation, the state of California has implemented a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal of integrating 33% renewable energy into the grid by 2020. This research considers several renewable energy integration scenarios for the state of California including various mixtures of geothermal, biogas, wind, solar thermal, and photovoltaic energy. Criteria pollutant emissions are spatially and temporally resolved in order to study the impacts of meeting the California's Renewable Electricity Standard. One of the main challenges of increasing renewable penetration is the unpredictable and variable generation profile. Production can be highly dependent on weather, as in the case of wind and solar generation. Sudden changes in weather can cause spikes and dips in power production. These intermittencies in renewable generation must be balanced in order to maintain grid reliability. The renewable energy implementation scenarios address grid reliability by considering various strategies including energy storage, distributed generation, plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), and dispatchable peaking and/or load following gas power plants to complement the intermittent renewable energy. Six 33% scenarios (CAISO/CPUC LTPP Trajectory Mix 1, Trajectory Mix 2, Trajectory Mix 3, Environmentally Constrained, Cost Constrained, Time Constrained) are evaluated. Additionally, baseline scenarios are compared to the renewable scenarios.

Power after Carbon

Power after Carbon PDF Author: Peter Fox-Penner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674245628
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
As the electric power industry faces the challenges of climate change, technological disruption, new market imperatives, and changing policies, a renowned energy expert offers a roadmap to the future of this essential sector. As the damaging and costly impacts of climate change increase, the rapid development of sustainable energy has taken on great urgency. The electricity industry has responded with necessary but wrenching shifts toward renewables, even as it faces unprecedented challenges and disruption brought on by new technologies, new competitors, and policy changes. The result is a collision course between a grid that must provide abundant, secure, flexible, and affordable power, and an industry facing enormous demands for power and rapid, systemic change. The fashionable solution is to think small: smart buildings, small-scale renewables, and locally distributed green energy. But Peter Fox-Penner makes clear that these will not be enough to meet our increasing needs for electricity. He points instead to the indispensability of large power systems, battery storage, and scalable carbon-free power technologies, along with the grids and markets that will integrate them. The electric power industry and its regulators will have to provide all of these, even as they grapple with changing business models for local electric utilities, political instability, and technological change. Power after Carbon makes sense of all the moving parts, providing actionable recommendations for anyone involved with or relying on the electric power system.

Air Quality Implications of an Energy Scenario for California Using High Levels of Electrification

Air Quality Implications of an Energy Scenario for California Using High Levels of Electrification PDF Author: Marcus Alexander
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Air quality
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Building a Climate Change-resilient Electricity System for Meeting California's Energy and Environmental Goals

Building a Climate Change-resilient Electricity System for Meeting California's Energy and Environmental Goals PDF Author: Brian Tarroja
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electric power consumption
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Long-term Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation in California and the Associated Regional Air Quality and Public Health Impacts

Long-term Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation in California and the Associated Regional Air Quality and Public Health Impacts PDF Author: Tianyang Wang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
In this dissertation we investigate the roadmap for California to achieve deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions by 2050 and the resulting regional air quality and public health impacts, form the strategy feasibility and selections that achieves different levels of ambitious climate target, to the benefits and trade-offs of different technology pathways with respect to air quality and public health consequences, as well as the relative contributions of emissions from different origins to regional air quality and public health. We first develop a roadmap for California to achieve net-zero GHG emissions in 2050 using detailed modeling of energy system transformation, cross-sectorial connectivity, and technology applicability. GHG mitigation strategies also reduce co-emitted criteria pollutants in California. By utilizing the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) and the Environmental Benefit Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP), we find that achieving net-zero GHG emissions can reduce 14,066 (95% Confidence Interval: 10,855 - 17,226) air pollution-related mortality in 2050, 35% of which are in disadvantaged communities. The monetized health co-benefit can offset most of the GHG abatement costs (i.e., 26 -116 billion dollars). These co-benefits are mainly contributed by ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration reductions, while ambient ozone (O3) concentration in California is not likely to drop when local emissions reduce. The net-zero target also requires bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) technology to offset some GHG emissions. BECCS technology, whereas supporting the net-zero target, would emit air pollutants through biomass combustion and reduce health co-benefits by 3 billion dollars, suggesting a potential trade-off between climate benefits and health co-benefits of ambitious climate policies. We then analyze the air quality and health impacts of different GHG mitigation pathways. By adopting an integrated approach that combines energy and emission technology modeling, high-resolution chemical transport simulation, and health impact assessment, we find that achievement of the 80% GHG reduction target would always bring substantial air quality and health co-benefits. But more importantly, the level of co-benefits are highly related to the selected technology pathway largely because of California's relatively clean energy structure. Compared with the business-as-usual levels, a decarbonization pathway that focuses on electrification and clean renewable energy is estimated to reduce concentrations of PM2.5 by 18-37% in four major metropolitan areas of California and subsequently avoid 10,196 (95% CI: 8,169-12,202) premature deaths. In contrast, a pathway focusing more on combustible renewable fuels only results in a quarter of such air quality and health benefits. Similar to what we found before, both GHG mitigation pathways may not reduce ambient O3 concentrations in California. Our findings could also assist the development of optimized technology pathway to simultaneously reduce GHG emissions and improve human health in California. Lastly, we conduct a detailed analysis to understand the relative contributions of local and non-local emission sources to ambient PM2.5 and O3 and evaluate the mortality burden in California associated with these two pollutants. We attribute the ambient PM2.5 and O3 concentrations in California to four emission groups: (1) California in-state anthropogenic emissions; (2) anthropogenic emissions from the western United States, excluding California; (3) natural emissions from the western United States; and (4) all emissions from outside of the western United States. Our health impact analyses find that PM2.5 and O3 are associated with 27,445 [95% Confidence Interval (CI): 19,277 - 35,885] and 13,822 (95% CI: 6,106-23,659) mortalities in California in 2012, respectively. Our estimates of O3-assocoated mortality are much higher than previously reported, mainly because we estimate 6,354 (95% CI 2,224 - 10,268) O3-associated cardiovascular mortality based on new epidemiological evidence. Approximately 67% of PM2.5-associated mortality in California is attributable to PM2.5 from in-state anthropogenic emissions. In contrast, 75% of the ambient O3 in California is contributed by distant emissions outside western United States, leading to 92% of O3-associated mortality, while in-state emissions were found to contribute to a much lesser extent to O3-associated mortality [i.e., 771 (95% CI 389-1,146) in ozone season]. The different patterns of PM2.5 and O3 we found also help explain our previous findings that GHG mitigation efforts in California mainly reduce local PM2.5 pollution.

Committee Guidance on Fulfilling California Environmental Quality Act Responsibilities for Greenhouse Gas Impacts in Power Plant Siting Applications

Committee Guidance on Fulfilling California Environmental Quality Act Responsibilities for Greenhouse Gas Impacts in Power Plant Siting Applications PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Greenhouse gas mitigation
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Emissions Reductions from Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in California Air Quality Management Districts

Emissions Reductions from Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in California Air Quality Management Districts PDF Author: Jeremy Fisher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Air quality management
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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Book Description