Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Renewables Portfolio Standards
Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Renewables Portfolio Standards

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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State renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as one of the most important policy drivers of renewable energy capacity expansion in the U.S. Collectively, these policies now apply to roughly 40% of U.S. electricity load, and may have substantial impacts on electricity markets, ratepayers, and local economies. As RPS policies have been proposed or adopted in an increasing number of states, a growing number of studies have attempted to quantify the potential impacts of these policies, focusing primarily on projecting cost impacts, but sometimes also estimating macroeconomic and environmental effects. This report synthesizes and analyzes the results and methodologies of 28 distinct state or utility-level RPS cost impact analyses completed since 1998. Together, these studies model proposed or adopted RPS policies in 18 different states. We highlight the key findings of these studies on the costs and benefits of RPS policies, examine the sensitivity of projected costs to model assumptions, assess the attributes of different modeling approaches, and suggest possible areas of improvement for future RPS analysis.

Routledge Handbook of Energy Economics
Routledge Handbook of Energy Economics

Author: Uğur Soytaş

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-23

Total Pages: 736

ISBN-13: 1315459639

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Energy consumption and production have major influences on the economy, environment, and society, but in return they are also influenced by how the economy is structured, how the social institutions work, and how the society deals with environmental degradation. The need for integrated assessment of the relationship between energy, economy, environment, and society is clear, and this handbook offers an in-depth review of all four pillars of the energy-economy-environment-society nexus. Bringing together contributions from all over the world, this handbook includes sections devoted to each of the four pillars. Moreover, as the financialization of commodity markets has made risk analysis more complicated and intriguing, the sections also cover energy commodity markets and their links to other financial and non-financial markets. In addition, econometric modeling and the forecasting of energy needs, as well as energy prices and volatilities, are also explored. Each part emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of the energy economics field and from this perspective, chapters offer a review of models and methods used in the literature. The Routledge Handbook of Energy Economics will be of great interest to all those studying and researching in the area of energy economics. It offers guideline suggestions for policy makers as well as for future research.

Variable Renewable Energy and the Electricity Grid
Variable Renewable Energy and the Electricity Grid

Author: Jay Apt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-13

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1317907663

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The integration of renewable energy resources into the electricity grid presents an important challenge. This book provides a review and analysis of the technical and policy options available for managing variable energy resources such as wind and solar power. As well as being of value to government and industry policy-makers and planners, the volume also provides a single source for scientists and engineers of the technical knowledge gained during the 4-year RenewElec (renewable electricity) project at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Vermont, Vermont Law School, and the Van Ness Feldman environmental law firm. The first part of the book discusses the options for large scale integration of variable electric power generation, including issues of predictability, variability, and efficiency. The second part presents the scientific findings of the project. In the final part, the authors undertake a critical review of major quantitative regional and national wind integration studies in the United States. Based on comparisons among these studies, they suggest areas where improvements in methods are warranted in future studies, areas where additional research is needed to facilitate future improvements in wind integration studies and how the research can be put into practice.

Solar Power, Renewable Portfolio Standards and Solar Renewable Energy Certificates
Solar Power, Renewable Portfolio Standards and Solar Renewable Energy Certificates

Author: Vanessa M. Evans

Publisher: Nova Science Publishers

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781620815328

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Among the available options for encouraging the increased deployment of renewable electricity, renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have become increasingly popular. The RPS is a relatively new policy mechanism, however, and experience with its use is only beginning to emerge. One key concern that has been voiced is whether RPS policies will offer adequate support to a wide range of renewable energy technologies and applications or whether, alternatively, RPS programs will favour a small number of the currently least-cost forms of renewable energy. This book documents the design of and early experience with state-level RPS programs in the United States that have been specifically tailored to encourage a wider diversity of renewable energy technologies, and solar energy in particular. State-level RPS programs specifically designed to support solar energy have already proven to be an important, albeit somewhat modest, driver for solar energy deployment, and those impacts are projected to continue to build in coming years.

Weighing the Costs and Benefits of State Renewables Portfolio Standards in the United States
Weighing the Costs and Benefits of State Renewables Portfolio Standards in the United States

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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State renewables portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as one of the most important policy drivers of renewable energy capacity expansion in the U.S. As RPS policies have been proposed or adopted in an increasing number of states, a growing number of studies have attempted to quantify the potential impacts of these policies, focusing primarily on cost impacts, but sometimes also estimating macroeconomic, risk reduction, and environmental effects. This article synthesizes and analyzes the results and methodologies of 31 distinct state or utility-level RPS cost-impact analyses completed since 1998. Together, these studies model proposed or adopted RPS policies in 20 different states. We highlight the key findings of these studies on the projected costs of state RPS policies, examine the sensitivity of projected costs to model assumptions, evaluate the reasonableness of key input assumptions, and suggest possible areas of improvement for future RPS analyses. We conclude that while there is considerable uncertainty in the study results, the majority of the studies project modest cost impacts. Seventy percent of the state RPS cost studies project retail electricity rate increases of no greater than one percent. Nonetheless, there is considerable room for improving the analytic methods, and therefore accuracy, of these estimates.