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A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports Sustainability estimates the overall climate and health benefits from wind and solar from 2019-2022 totaled $249 billion in the United States.
The study accounts for recent changes in the electricity system, including the continued growth of wind and solar to provide over 30% of total generation in some regions. It includes recent updates to health and climate impact research, provides a new quantitative analysis of uncertainty, and uses an approach that facilitates annual updates and replication in new regions.
The study evaluates the benefits of wind and solar generation through reducing sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, in addition to estimating the dollar value of emission reductions and the number of avoided premature mortalities.
The study estimates that in 2022, wind and solar generation provided a total climate and health benefit of 14.3 ¢/kWh-of-wind and 10.0 ¢/kWh-of-solar (or in per MWh units: $143/MWh-of-wind and $100/MWh-of-solar). Including only domestic air quality health benefits, the benefits were 3.6¢/kWh-of-wind ($36/MWh-of-wind) and 1.7¢/kWh-of-solar ($17/MWh-of-solar), with the remainder being climate benefits.
Additionally, in 2022, wind and solar generation helped reduce enough SO2 and NOx emissions to prevent 1,200 to 1,600 premature mortalities in the United States (reflecting a 5th to 95th percentile uncertainty range), the study found.
The study developed regional estimates of benefits and shows how differences in the location of wind and solar plants lead to differences in benefits. Both technologies reduce emissions from both natural gas and coal plants, but benefits from wind are more weighted toward emission reductions from coal plants than are benefits from solar.
The proportion of benefits derived from each region, from coal and gas generation avoided, and from CO2, SO2, and NOx avoided differed for wind versus solar. Wind generation was more concentrated in the geographic center of the U.S., and offset slightly more coal than natural gas. Solar generation was concentrated in the Western U.S. and Texas, and offset slightly more natural gas than coal.
The article includes additional discussion of topics such as interregional trade of wind and solar generation, the additional benefits of reducing methane emissions associated with natural gas production, life-cycle emissions from the manufacture and construction of wind and solar plants, how the addition of battery storage might affect emission benefit calculations, and how the varying operational characteristics of natural gas and coal plants affect benefit estimates.
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Source: Renewable Energy World
