Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2018
Abstract
Highlights•Without carbon regulations, CO2 emissions and water use are highly affected by fuel prices.•Carbon regulations reduce both CO2 emissions and water use.•Without incentives, carbon capture is not competitive with cheap natural gas and renewables.•A stringent constraint on water withdrawal lowers the fleet share of once-through cooling.AbstractThis study evaluates transition pathways in electricity generation and their future water impacts. Scenarios that do or do not comply with the carbon pollution standards – based on the U.S. New Source Performance Standards and Clean Power Plan – are evaluated. Using the Electric Reliability Council of Texas region as an illustration, the scenarios with carbon regulations are shown to have lower CO2 emissions and water use from the power sectorthan the continuation of the status quo with more electricity generation from coal than natural gas. The benefits are due to increases in electricity generation from renewable sources and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants plus retirements of existing coal-fired plants, which depend on natural gas and CO2 allowance prices. When CO2 is captured and sold for enhanced oil recovery with a price higher than $15 per short ton, water consumption is elevated because of more electricity generation from existing NGCC plants retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. A stringent constraint on water withdrawalsdecreases electricity generation from existing power plants with once-through cooling, but increases overall water consumption because of an elevated share of plants with wet recirculating cooling systems in the fleet.
Keywords
Capacity expansion, Carbon pollution standards, Low-carbon electric power generation, Water consumption, Water withdrawal, Environmental sustainability, Policy analytics
Discipline
Databases and Information Systems
Research Areas
Information Systems and Management
Publication
Energy Policy
Volume
120
First Page
714
Last Page
733
ISSN
0301-4215
Identifier
10.1016/j.enpol.2018.05.067
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
LIM-WAVDE, Kustini; ZHAI, Haibo; KAUFFMAN, Robert John; and RUBIN, Edward S..
Assessing carbon pollution standards: Electric power generation pathways and their water impacts. (2018). Energy Policy. 120, 714-733.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/4271
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.05.067