IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mns/wpaper/wp201203.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Emissions savings from wind power generation: Evidence from Texas, California and the Upper Midwest

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel T. Kaffine

    (Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines)

  • Brannin J. McBee

    (Elustria Capital)

  • Jozef Lieskovsky

    (Bentek Energy LLC)

Abstract

Wind power has the potential to reduce emissions associated with conventional electricity generation. Using detailed, systemic hourly data of wind generation and emissions from plants in ERCOT (Texas), CAISO (California), and MISO (Upper Midwest), we estimate the SO₂, NOₓ and CO₂ emissions offset by wind generation in those territories. Our estimation strategy implicitly captures both the marginal unit of generation displaced by wind on the electrical grid, and the marginal emissions reduction from that displaced unit. Our results reveal substantial variation in emissions reduction by territory, which appear to be strongly driven by differences in the existing generation mix. While the environmental benefits from emissions reductions in the Upper Midwest roughly cover government subsidies for wind generation, environmental benefits in Texas and California fall short.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel T. Kaffine & Brannin J. McBee & Jozef Lieskovsky, 2012. "Emissions savings from wind power generation: Evidence from Texas, California and the Upper Midwest," Working Papers 2012-03, Colorado School of Mines, Division of Economics and Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:mns:wpaper:wp201203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econbus-papers.mines.edu/working-papers/wp201203.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2012
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fischlein, Miriam & Larson, Joel & Hall, Damon M. & Chaudhry, Rumika & Rai Peterson, Tarla & Stephens, Jennie C. & Wilson, Elizabeth J., 2010. "Policy stakeholders and deployment of wind power in the sub-national context: A comparison of four U.S. states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4429-4439, August.
    2. Benitez, Liliana E. & Benitez, Pablo C. & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 2008. "The economics of wind power with energy storage," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1973-1989, July.
    3. Puga, J. Nicolas, 0. "The Importance of Combined Cycle Generating Plants in Integrating Large Levels of Wind Power Generation," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 33-44, August.
    4. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(4), pages 631-653.
    5. Beenstock, Michael, 1995. "The stochastic economics of windpower," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 27-37, January.
    6. Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G., 2008. "Environmental and technology policies for climate mitigation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 142-162, March.
    7. Michael Greenstone & Elizabeth Kopits & Ann Wolverton, 2011. "Estimating the Social Cost of Carbon for Use in U.S. Federal Rulemakings: A Summary and Interpretation," NBER Working Papers 16913, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Ramteen Sioshansi, 2011. "Increasing the Value of Wind with Energy Storage," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 1-30.
    9. Kevin Novan, 2015. "Valuing the Wind: Renewable Energy Policies and Air Pollution Avoided," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 291-326, August.
    10. DeCarolis, Joseph F. & Keith, David W., 2006. "The economics of large-scale wind power in a carbon constrained world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 395-410, March.
    11. Moore, Michael R. & Lewis, Geoffrey McD. & Cepela, Daniel J., 2010. "Markets for renewable energy and pollution emissions: Environmental claims, emission-reduction accounting, and product decoupling," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 5956-5966, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Fell, Harrison & Linn, Joshua, 2013. "Renewable electricity policies, heterogeneity, and cost effectiveness," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 688-707.
    2. Paul Miskelly, 2012. "Wind Farms in Eastern Australia — Recent Lessons," Energy & Environment, , vol. 23(8), pages 1233-1260, December.
    3. Paul, Anthony & Palmer, Karen & Woerman, Matt, 2014. "Designing by Degrees: Flexibility and Cost-Effectiveness in Climate PolicyAbstract: Substantially reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity production will require a transformation of t," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-05, Resources for the Future.
    4. Ellerman, Danny & Delarue, Erik & Weigt, Hannes, 2012. "CO2 Abatement from RES Injections in the German Electricity Sector: Does a CO2 Price Help?," Working papers 2012/14, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    5. Martin D. Heintzelman & Carrie M. Tuttle, 2012. "Values in the Wind: A Hedonic Analysis of Wind Power Facilities," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(3), pages 571-588.
    6. Wichsinee Wibulpolprasert, 2016. "Optimal Environmental Policies And Renewable Energy Investment: Evidence From The Texas Electricity Market," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(04), pages 1-41, November.
    7. Wichsinee Wibulpolprasert, 2016. "Optimal Environmental Policies and Renewable Energy Investment in Electricity Markets," PIER Discussion Papers 47, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Daniel T. Kaffine, Brannin J. McBee, and Jozef Lieskovsky, 2013. "Emissions Savings from Wind Power Generation in Texas," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    9. Weigt, Hannes & Ellerman, Denny & Delarue, Erik, 2013. "CO2 abatement from renewables in the German electricity sector: Does a CO2 price help?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 149-158.
    10. Wheatley, Joseph, 2013. "Quantifying CO2 savings from wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 89-96.
    11. Joseph Cullen, 2013. "Measuring the Environmental Benefits of Wind-Generated Electricity," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 107-133, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel T. Kaffine & Brannin J. McBee & Jozef Lieskovsky, 2013. "Emissions Savings from Wind Power Generation in Texas," The Energy Journal, , vol. 34(1), pages 155-176, January.
    2. Nandeeta Neerunjun & Hubert Stahn, 2023. "Renewable energy support: pre-announced policies and (in)-efficiency," AMSE Working Papers 2335, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    3. Scorah, Hugh & Sopinka, Amy & van Kooten, G. Cornelis, 2012. "The economics of storage, transmission and drought: integrating variable wind power into spatially separated electricity grids," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 536-541.
    4. Harrison Fell & Daniel T. Kaffine, 2014. "A one-two punch: Joint effects of natural gas abundance and renewables on coal-fired power plants," Working Papers 2014-10, Colorado School of Mines, Division of Economics and Business.
    5. Nyamdash, Batsaikhan & Denny, Eleanor, 2013. "The impact of electricity storage on wholesale electricity prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 6-16.
    6. Karen Maguire & Abdul Munasib, 2013. "Do Renewables Portfolio Standards Increase Electricity Prices? A Synthetic Control Approach," Economics Working Paper Series 1403, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business, revised Aug 2013.
    7. Abrell, Jan & Kosch, Mirjam & Rausch, Sebastian, 2019. "Carbon abatement with renewables: Evaluating wind and solar subsidies in Germany and Spain," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 172-202.
    8. Jean-Henry Ferrasse & Nandeeta Neerunjun & Hubert Stahn, 2021. "Managing intermittency in the electricity market," Working Papers halshs-03154612, HAL.
    9. Bahramian, Pejman & Jenkins, Glenn P. & Milne, Frank, 2021. "The displacement impacts of wind power electricity generation: Costly lessons from Ontario," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. Paul Lehmann & Patrik Söderholm, 2018. "Can Technology-Specific Deployment Policies Be Cost-Effective? The Case of Renewable Energy Support Schemes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(2), pages 475-505, October.
    11. Jesse D. Jenkins & Valerie J. Karplus, 2016. "Carbon pricing under binding political constraints," WIDER Working Paper Series 044, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Fell, Harrison & Linn, Joshua, 2013. "Renewable electricity policies, heterogeneity, and cost effectiveness," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 688-707.
    13. Stephan Nagl, Michaela Fursch, and Dietmar Lindenberger, 2013. "The Costs of Electricity Systems with a High Share of Fluctuating Renewables: A Stochastic Investment and Dispatch Optimization Model for Europe," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    14. Ludig, Sylvie & Haller, Markus & Schmid, Eva & Bauer, Nico, 2011. "Fluctuating renewables in a long-term climate change mitigation strategy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6674-6685.
    15. Karen Maguire & Abdul Munasib, 2018. "Electricity Price Increase in Texas: What is the Role of RPS?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 69(2), pages 293-316, February.
    16. Weigt, Hannes & Ellerman, Denny & Delarue, Erik, 2013. "CO2 abatement from renewables in the German electricity sector: Does a CO2 price help?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 149-158.
    17. Madlener, Reinhard & Latz, Jochen, 2013. "Economics of centralized and decentralized compressed air energy storage for enhanced grid integration of wind power," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 299-309.
    18. Abrell, Jan & Rausch, Sebastian & Streitberger, Clemens, 2019. "The economics of renewable energy support," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 94-117.
    19. Genc, Talat S. & Reynolds, Stanley S., 2019. "Who should own a renewable technology? Ownership theory and an application," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 213-238.
    20. Daniel Kaffine & Christopher Worley, 2010. "The Windy Commons?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(2), pages 151-172, October.

    More about this item

    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:mns:wpaper:wp201203. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Jared Carbone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decsmus.html .

    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.