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Title: Policies to reduce heat islands: Magnitudes of benefits and incentives to achieve them

Abstract

A ``Cool Communities`` strategy of lighter-colored reroofs and resurfaced pavements, and shade trees, can directly lower annual air conditioning bills in Los Angeles (LA) by about $100 million (M), cool the air in the LA Basin (thereby saving indirectly $70M more in air conditioning), and reduce smog exceedance by about 10%, worth another $360M, for a total savings of about $0.5 billion per year. Trees are most effective if they shade buildings; but they are still very cost effective if they merely cool the air by evapotranspiration. Avoided peak power for air conditioning can be about 1.5GW (more than 15% of LA air conditioning). Extrapolated to the entire US, the authors estimate 20GW avoided and potential annual electricity savings of about $5--10B in 2015. To achieve these savings, they call for ratings and labels for cool materials, buildings` performance standards, utility incentive programs, and an extension of the existing smog-offset trading market (RECLAIM) to include credit for cool surfaces and trees. EPA can include cool materials and trees in its proposed regional ``open market smog-offset trading credits``.

Authors:
;  [1]; ; ;  [2]
  1. Dept. of Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
418460
Report Number(s):
LBL-38679; CONF-9608106-9
ON: DE97001259; TRN: AHC29702%%75
DOE Contract Number:  
AC03-76SF00098
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 1996 American Council for an Energy-Efficieny Economy (ACEEE) summer study on energy efficiency in buildings, Pacific Grove, CA (United States), 25-31 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: May 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
29 ENERGY PLANNING AND POLICY; 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; LOS ANGELES; ENERGY POLICY; BUILDINGS; COOLING LOAD; ENERGY CONSERVATION; TREES; ROOFS; PAVEMENTS; OPTICAL REFLECTION; ALBEDO

Citation Formats

Rosenfeld, A H, Romm, J J, Akbari, H, Pomerantz, M, and Taha, H G. Policies to reduce heat islands: Magnitudes of benefits and incentives to achieve them. United States: N. p., 1996. Web.
Rosenfeld, A H, Romm, J J, Akbari, H, Pomerantz, M, & Taha, H G. Policies to reduce heat islands: Magnitudes of benefits and incentives to achieve them. United States.
Rosenfeld, A H, Romm, J J, Akbari, H, Pomerantz, M, and Taha, H G. 1996. "Policies to reduce heat islands: Magnitudes of benefits and incentives to achieve them". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/418460.
@article{osti_418460,
title = {Policies to reduce heat islands: Magnitudes of benefits and incentives to achieve them},
author = {Rosenfeld, A H and Romm, J J and Akbari, H and Pomerantz, M and Taha, H G},
abstractNote = {A ``Cool Communities`` strategy of lighter-colored reroofs and resurfaced pavements, and shade trees, can directly lower annual air conditioning bills in Los Angeles (LA) by about $100 million (M), cool the air in the LA Basin (thereby saving indirectly $70M more in air conditioning), and reduce smog exceedance by about 10%, worth another $360M, for a total savings of about $0.5 billion per year. Trees are most effective if they shade buildings; but they are still very cost effective if they merely cool the air by evapotranspiration. Avoided peak power for air conditioning can be about 1.5GW (more than 15% of LA air conditioning). Extrapolated to the entire US, the authors estimate 20GW avoided and potential annual electricity savings of about $5--10B in 2015. To achieve these savings, they call for ratings and labels for cool materials, buildings` performance standards, utility incentive programs, and an extension of the existing smog-offset trading market (RECLAIM) to include credit for cool surfaces and trees. EPA can include cool materials and trees in its proposed regional ``open market smog-offset trading credits``.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/418460}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996},
month = {Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996}
}

Conference:
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