Products You May Like
Plenty of research has examined the social costs of carbon-emitting energy sources, which have downstream effects on human health, ecological health, and communities vulnerable to natural disasters. But what about “clean” energy sources such as wind and solar? In a new study, researchers in California investigated the financial setbacks or savings produced by switching to wind and solar energy. They found that by mitigating health and environmental risks associated with fossil fuels, renewable energy sources saved the United States more than $100 per megawatt-hour (MWh) generated. These savings far outweigh wind and solar adoption costs.
It’s fairly easy to examine the direct costs of implementing a particular energy technology, but capturing the financial domino effect after implementation is much more challenging. “Social cost” is a metric that attempts to achieve the latter. By taking into account the costs of medical care, environmental rehabilitation, and infrastructure repair—AKA damage control—related to a specific form of energy, researchers can assign that resource a social cost. This metric can then be used to compare resources with one another or improve upon one resource in particular.
Research published in 2022 places the social cost of carbon dioxide at $185 per metric tonne, while a paper published in November by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) places the same metric between $219 and $238 per tonne. Using the more conservative $185 per tonne estimate, renewable energy experts at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab created a coarse-resolution analysis that compares the costs of sticking with fossil fuel energy generation with the costs (and potential savings) of switching to wind and solar.
Credit: Matt Artz/Unsplash
Every 1 MWh of energy produced by wind displaces 0.89 MWh of fossil fuel output, while the ratio of solar to fossil fuel is 1 to 0.76. (These gaps are caused by the longer distance between renewable energy farms and city centers and some renewable production being used for battery storage.) In 2022, the 435.6 Terawatt-hours (Twh) of energy produced via wind circumvented more than 229 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, creating $62.4 billion in savings. The same year, 116.1 Twh of solar energy allowed the US to avoid 45.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, facilitating $11.6 billion in savings.
The researchers calculated that wind power saved the US $143 per MWh produced in 2022, while solar power saved $100 per MWh. Both savings dwarf the costs of opting for wind and solar power, which range from $20 to $60 per MWh unsubsidized. Even the heftiest subsidies, such as those provided through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, fall below $35 per MWh, meaning the financial savings associated with switching to renewables still far outweigh the costs.
This analysis doesn’t account for distributed solar (solar panels maintained by households or private businesses) or batteries, meaning the US might have produced and utilized more solar energy than the above figures show. It also appears to neglect the intermittency of wind and solar farms, which become far less productive at night or on still days. Future analyses might consider these factors. But until then, it can be useful to have a framework that quantifies the social savings associated with renewable energy options.