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A bottom-up method to develop pollution abatement cost curves for coal-fired utility boilers

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  • Vijay, Samudra
  • DeCarolis, Joseph F.
  • Srivastava, Ravi K.

Abstract

This paper illustrates a new method to create supply curves for pollution abatement using boiler-level data that explicitly accounts for technology cost and performance. The Coal Utility Environmental Cost (CUECost) model is used to estimate retrofit costs for five different NOx control configurations on a large subset of the existing coal-fired, utility-owned boilers in the US. The resultant data are used to create technology-specific marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs) and also serve as input to an integer linear program, which minimizes system-wide control costs by finding the optimal distribution of NOx controls across the modeled boilers under an emission constraint. The result is a single optimized MACC that accounts for detailed, boiler-specific information related to NOx retrofits. Because the resultant MACCs do not take into account regional differences in air-quality standards or pre-existing NOx controls, the results should not be interpreted as a policy prescription. The general method as well as NOx-specific results presented here should be of significant value to modelers and policy analysts who must estimate the costs of pollution reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Vijay, Samudra & DeCarolis, Joseph F. & Srivastava, Ravi K., 2010. "A bottom-up method to develop pollution abatement cost curves for coal-fired utility boilers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2255-2261, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:38:y:2010:i:5:p:2255-2261
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Levihn, F. & Nuur, C. & Laestadius, S., 2014. "Marginal abatement cost curves and abatement strategies: Taking option interdependency and investments unrelated to climate change into account," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 336-344.
    3. Doole, Graeme J., 2012. "Cost-effective policies for improving water quality by reducing nitrate emissions from diverse dairy farms: An abatement–cost perspective," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 10-20.
    4. Chih Chen, 2015. "Assessing the Pollutant Abatement Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emission Regulation: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Freeway Bus Service Industry," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(4), pages 477-495, August.
    5. Sun, Jian & Schreifels, Jeremy & Wang, Jun & Fu, Joshua S. & Wang, Shuxiao, 2014. "Cost estimate of multi-pollutant abatement from the power sector in the Yangtze River Delta region of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 478-488.
    6. Asha Gunawardena, 2016. "Cost of Controlling Water Pollution and its Impact on Industrial Efficiency," Working Papers id:11537, eSocialSciences.
    7. Mekaroonreung, Maethee & Johnson, Andrew L., 2014. "A nonparametric method to estimate a technical change effect on marginal abatement costs of U.S. coal power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 45-55.
    8. Halkos, George & Tzeremes, Nickolaos & Kourtzidis, Stavros, 2014. "Abating CO2 emissions in the Greek energy and industry sectors," MPRA Paper 60807, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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