Emissions, Transmission, and the Environmental Value of Renewable Energy
-
Harrison Fell
-
Daniel T. Kaffine
-
Kevin Novan
- American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (Forthcoming)
Abstract
We examine how transmission congestion alters the environmental benefits provided by renewable generation. Using hourly data
from the Texas and Mid-Continent electricity markets, we find that
relaxing transmission constraints between the wind-rich areas and
the demand centers of the respective markets conservatively increases the non-market value of wind by 30% for Texas and 17%
for Mid-Continent markets. Much of this increase in the non-market value arises from a redistribution in where air quality improvements occur— when transmission is not constrained, wind off-sets much more pollution from fossil fuel units located near highly
populated demand centers.
Forthcoming Article Downloads
