On the Path to SunShot. The Environmental and Public Health Benefits of Achieving High Solar Penetrations in the United States

Technical Report · Sun May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1253977· OSTI ID:1253977

Wiser, Ryan ^[1]; Mai, Trieu ^[2]; Millstein, Dev ^[1]; Macknick, Jordan ^[2]; Carpenter, Alberta ^[2]; Cohen, Stuart ^[2]; Cole, Wesley ^[2]; Frew, Bethany ^[2]; Heath, Garvin ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Compared with fossil fuel generators, photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) produce far lower lifecycle levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and harmful pollutants including fine particular matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrogen oxides (NO_x). In this report, we monetize the emission reductions from achieving the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot deployment goals: 14% of U.S. electricity demand met by solar in 2030 and 27% in 2050. We estimate that achieving these goals could reduce cumulative power-sector GHG emissions by 10% between 2015 and 2050, resulting in savings of $238-$252 billion. This is equivalent to 2.0-2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of solar installed (cents/kWh-solar). Similarly, realizing these levels of solar deployment could reduce cumulative power-sector emissions of PM2.5 by 8%, SO₂ by 9%, and NOx by 11% between 2015 and 2050. This could produce $167 billion in savings from lower future health and environmental damages, or 1.4 cents/kWh-solar--while also preventing 25,000-59,000 premature deaths. To put this in perspective, this estimated combined benefit of 3.5 cents/kWh-solar due to SunShot-level solar deployment is approximately equal to the additional levelized cost of electricity reduction needed to make unsubsidized utility-scale solar competitive with conventional generators today. In addition, the analysis shows that achieving the SunShot goals could save 4% of total power-sector water withdrawals and 9% of total power-sector water consumption over the 2015-2050 period--a particularly important consideration for arid states where substantial solar will be deployed. These results have potential implications for policy innovation and the economic competitiveness of solar and other generation technologies.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1253977
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-6A20-65628; LBNL-1004373
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
SunShot
solar
PV
photovoltaic
CSP
concentrating solar power
climate change
carbon
greenhouse gas
carbon dioxide
CO2
sulfur dioxide
SO2
nitrogen oxides
NOx
particulate matter
PM
environmental
benefits
social cost of carbon
water
air pollution
externalities
health
policy