Clean Energy Standard Analysis

FACETS was used to analyze several variations on a power sector Clean Energy Standard (CES).  A CES can be thought of as an extension of a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that also gives credits for other zero and low carbon technologies. The CES awards one CES credit per MWh of zero-carbon generation, and partial credit for some other types in rough proportion to their degree of carbon emissions reduction from coal steam generation.  

The CES requires an increasing percentage of credits as a share of total national generation, ramping up from 2010 levels of roughly 43% to 90% in 2050. Three CES trajectories were tested, named C45, C65, and C85, for the share required in 2030. Banking and borrowing were not permitted.

Several sensitivity cases were analyzed, including prohibiting investment in new nuclear, permitting investment in interregional transmission capacity, and lower cost natural gas supplies.

The paper describing the analysis, published in Energy Economics, is available here.