Economic and Environmental Considerations of Renewable Energy Resources

This presentation will first discuss a model, named the Stochastic Wave Energy and Tidal Energy Revenues (SWEATER) model, that simulates the energy revenues for tidal and wave energy resources probabilistically. The findings of SWEATER suggest that tidal energy resources, under certain conditions, could be economically feasible if payments are received for reductions in air pollution. The latter portion of this presentation will expand on the idea of air pollution reductions in the context of the Marginal Carbon Reductions (MaCRe) tool. MaCRe estimates the reduction in carbon emissions as a consequence of the installation of commercial rooftop solar PV systems. The methodology employed by MaCRe allows for a full accounting of emission reduction potential by considering the operational and structural dynamics of the decarbonizing electricity grid.

Speaker: Carlos Ciudad-Real, air quality consultant