Greentech Lead America: A recent research paper from CMU experts from the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making finds that wind and solar achieve greater health and climate benefits in Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania because in those locations they replace electricity generated by coal plants, the researchers report.
The main reason to build wind and solar plants is to reduce air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, so according to the report, Southwest and California are about the last place in the U.S. where plants should be built.
The research paper, titled “Regional Variations in the Health, Environment and Climate Benefits of Wind and Solar Generation,” is authored by Kyle Siler-Evans,Ines Lima Azevedo, M. Granger Morgan and Jay Apt.
“A wind turbine in West Virginia displaces twice as much carbon dioxide and seven times as much health damage as the same turbine in California,” said Siler Evans, a Ph.D. researcher in CMU’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy from Santa Fe, N.M.”The benefits of solar plants are greatest in the cloudy East as opposed to the sunny Southwest.”
Though federal subsidies for wind and power plants are the same across the country, Azevedo, an assistant professor of engineering and public policy (EPP) and executive director of the Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making, argues “that while there is of course some uncertainty about the magnitude of the health and environmental damages avoided, if we are going to justify the added cost of wind and solar on the basis of the health and climate benefits that they bring, it is time to think about a subsidy program that encourages operators to build plants in places where they will yield the most health and climate benefits.”
The power generated by wind and solar is highly variable and intermittent. “There are significant costs associated with deploying and integrating wind and solar plants into the grid, so it would be best to do it in places where we can get the greatest health and climate benefits,” said Apt, director of CMU’s Electricity Industry Center.
“These unexpected results are an example of the sorts of findings that result from CMU’s broad, interdisciplinary research focus,” said Morgan, director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy.