IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v73y2018icp393-409.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The future of the electricity industry: Implications of trends and taxes

Author

Listed:
  • Ross, Martin T.

Abstract

This analysis examines how changes in market trends and technology costs are likely to affect electricity generation in the United States in the context of possible future carbon taxes. The industry today is at a crossroads as older coal-fired plants retire and as nuclear plants begin to reach the end of their originally planned lives. At the same time, new and improved technologies for wind and solar generation are reshaping the industry, alongside dramatic increases in natural gas generation as the result of the shale-gas revolution. How these forces interact will depend on the specific paths that technologies for renewables and shale gas production take over the next couple of decades. The paper uses the detailed DIEM electricity-sector model to examine a wide range of sensitivity cases for technology and fuel costs under different economic conditions. Model results focus on the level of renewable penetration, natural gas generation and emissions, and what all of these factors may mean for CO2 emissions in the industry. The model finds that carbon taxes can be an effective way to quickly lower emissions. Shifts among natural gas and renewable generation can vary significantly, depending on capital and operating costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Ross, Martin T., 2018. "The future of the electricity industry: Implications of trends and taxes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 393-409.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:73:y:2018:i:c:p:393-409
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2018.03.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988318301038
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2018.03.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhu, Ziqing & Hu, Ze & Chan, Ka Wing & Bu, Siqi & Zhou, Bin & Xia, Shiwei, 2023. "Reinforcement learning in deregulated energy market: A comprehensive review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    2. Vu, Khuong & Hartley, Kris, 2022. "Effects of digital transformation on electricity sector growth and productivity: A study of thirteen industrialized economies," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Freire-González, Jaume & Puig-Ventosa, Ignasi, 2019. "Reformulating taxes for an energy transition," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 312-323.
    4. Castagneto Gissey, Giorgio & Zakeri, Behnam & Dodds, Paul E. & Subkhankulova, Dina, 2021. "Evaluating consumer investments in distributed energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Zakeri, Behnam & Cross, Samuel & Dodds, Paul.E. & Gissey, Giorgio Castagneto, 2021. "Policy options for enhancing economic profitability of residential solar photovoltaic with battery energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate policy; Electricity generation; Carbon taxes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q4 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy
    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:73:y:2018:i:c:p:393-409. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.