Each week, I review the papers, studies, reports, and briefings posted over at the RFF Library Blog.
Well Within Reach: How Texas Can Comply with and Benefit from the Clean Power Plan
…Texas is well-positioned to meet its U.S. Clean Power Plan targets, the national standards designed to curb carbon pollution from existing power plants for the first time ever.
Largely based on data from Texas’ primary grid operator, EDF’s analysis demonstrates Texas will be 88% of the way toward compliance with the plan, merely through existing market trends. - via Environmental Defense Fund
First Draft of New Climate Change Agreement Presented to Governments [UNFCC]
[Dot Earth] In what counts as progress in preparations for Paris negotiations aimed at forging the first new global climate agreement since 1992, the United Nations secretariat managing the process issued a news release today titled, “First Draft of New Climate Change Agreement Presented to Governments.”… - via UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action
Resilience for Free: How Solar+Storage Could Protect Multifamily Affordable Housing from Power Outages at Little or No Net Cost
This report uses project data for buildings in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. to examine the financial case for installing solar+storage systems to support critical common area loads in multifamily affordable housing. The report concludes that with the right market structures and incentives, solar+storage systems can provide a positive economic return on par with energy efficiency or stand-alone solar. In some cases, the addition of batteries improves affordable housing project economics by generating significant electric bill savings through reducing utility demand charges and creating revenue by providing grid services. - via Clean Energy Group / by Seth Mullendore, et al.
Climate Change and the U.S. Energy Sector
- [Utility Dive] The impacts of climate change are poised to wreak havoc on the United States electric industry, according to a new report from the Department of Energy.
- The analysis, released in drought-stricken California by U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, breaks the country into nine regions and examines what climate changes will have the greatest impacts.
- DOE found electric grid operations and infrastructure in every region are vulnerable to a variety of impacts, including increasing temperatures, heavy rainfall events, wildfires and hurricanes… - via US Dept. of Energy
Rating the States on Their Risk of Natural Gas Overreliance
[Website] Natural gas has a role to play in our transition to a cleaner energy future, but too much natural gas can be a problem.
Electricity consumers will ultimately have to bear the costs when a state’s bets on natural gas fail to pay off, and UCS analysis shows that two-thirds of U.S. states may be putting their consumers at financial risk because of their overreliance on natural gas… - via Union of Concerned Scientists
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