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ID:
115654
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Various public policies in the United States are providing financial incentives for installation and generation of electricity from renewable resources. This article examines the influence of investment subsidies, greenhouse gas (GHG) prices, and renewable energy credit (REC) prices on the economic performance of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. Our model integrates PV output, capacity-factor-based dispatch, and cost-benefit financial components to evaluate new PV installations in California and Texas. Relative to the base case, the benefit-cost ratio increases between 5-53% in California and 5-38% in Texas for the policy-derived cases of GHG and REC prices. The economic performance of PV is higher in California due to higher grid electricity prices and the profile of displaced marginal fuels. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates the electricity and GHG prices required to achieve profitability. A key element of the economic analysis demonstrates the importance of assessing the marginal fuels displaced by the PV system, not the average mix of displaced fuels, in terms of accurately monetizing the GHG abatement embodied in the displaced fuels. In California, for example, the discounted benefits derived from pollution abatement under the marginal displacement approach were 1.6-3.0 times higher than under the three average fuel mix cases.
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| 2 |
ID:
098612
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| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Photovoltaic electricity has the potential to mitigate CO2 emissions from the grid. A methodology to more accurately evaluate CO2 abatement by PV electricity is developed. We develop a capacity factor based dispatching model to evaluate marginal abatement in the load zones of ERCOT and CAISO, and compare it to the abatement using national, regional and state average resource profiles. The average cases over-estimated and under-estimated CO2 abatement in ERCOT and CAISO, respectively. Marginal abatement was lower by 17% than the average cases in ERCOT, due to the predominant displacement of the low carbon natural gas plants at the margin. In CASIO, marginal abatement was higher (1.3-2.4 times) than that of the average cases due to the displacement of highly inefficient gas plants at the margin. We demonstrate that actual CO2 abatement of PV electricity is dependent on both peak load resources and capacity of installations. Subsequently, we develop a CO2 indicator that can be used as a guideline for selecting PV installation sites to derive maximum abatement. Installing photovoltaics in regional areas of MRO, SPP and RFC was determined to be most beneficial. The results of this study can guide energy planning and CO2 mitigation policy-making using photovoltaics in the future.
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