Improving Predictability of Wind Power Generation Using Empirical Data
Wind energy plays an important role in decarbonizing the economy and increasingly accounts for a growing share of electricity supply in the United States. Complicating the effort to improve wind power predictability is a lack of empirical data, since wind power generation data are proprietary and often considered business secrets. To address this lack of empirical study, this thesis uses actual generation data between 2016 to 2021 from seven anonymized wind farms in Midwestern United States that range from 50MW to 235MW in size.
Tracking US Progress on the Path to a Decarbonized Economy
Investments in new technologies and infrastructure that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions — everything from electric vehicles to heat pumps — are growing rapidly in the US. Now, a new database, developed by a team at CEEPR led by Brian Deese and in collaboration with the Rhodium Group, enables these investments to be comprehensively monitored in real-time, thereby helping to assess the efficacy of policies designed to spur clean investments and address climate change. Read more at MIT News here.
Economic Implications of the Climate Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act
A new CEEPR Working Paper assesses the economic impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) key climate provisions. Despite higher projected investments in clean energy and electric vehicles than official U.S. government estimates, it finds that IRA provisions are cost effective. IRA has large impacts on power sector investments and electricity prices, lowering retail electricity rates and resulting in negative prices in some wholesale markets.
Sustainability Analytics: Meeting Carbon Commitments Most Efficiently
What makes a sustainable company a sustainable company? More and more companies are setting seemingly ambitious net-zero targets for their greenhouse gas emissions, with the dirty secret being that the path to achieving these targets is largely met with little to no actual emissions reductions from the company itself. So what can be done differently? A new working paper looks into this issue.
How Grid Reinforcement Costs Differ by the Income of EV User Groups
Due to the increasing power demand and expected load peaks, future electric mobility scenarios require high grid infrastructure investments. Therefore, socio-economic factors, such as income, impact the charging loads and the related grid infrastructure costs. These infrastructure costs could lead to an unwanted inequitable costing allocation, as grid operators might opt for an across-the-board electricity price increase. A new paper looks into this issue.
Op-Ed: Petrostates usually benefit from war. Let’s make sure Iran and Russia don’t.
An unfortunate fact about oil markets is that all petrostates profit from violence — whether they perpetrate it themselves or benefit when other petrostates do. And that creates a conundrum for U.S. policymakers: How to punish Iran for its suspected assistance to Hamas without helping Russia during its war on Ukraine? CEEPR faculty affiliate Catherine Wolfram and MIT Sloan professor Simon Johnson propose a solution: Impose a price cap on Iran’s oil exports. Read more about their thinking in the full Op-Ed at the Washington Post.
Learn More
On the road to smoother EV charging — and hopefully, greater adoption
The scarcity of public chargers, with unreliable coverage for long-distance trips, remains a major obstacle to widespread EV adoption. As head of the new Driving Toward Seamless Public EV Charging initiative, Elaine Buckberg, a new senior fellow at the Salata Institute, will lead a team of researchers from Harvard and MIT CEEPR in pursuit of improvements. Key collaborators include CEEPR Director Christopher R. Knittel and Harvard’s Vice President for Climate and Sustainability James H. Stock, who also directs the Salata Institute. In this interview with the Harvard Gazette, Elaine shares additional thoughts on the challenges ahead for EVs.
Learn More
Biden’s Climate Law Is Reshaping Private Investment in the United States
Data from the Clean Investment Monitor, a new project from MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research and the Rhodium Group, shows that President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act has impacted both consumer and corporate spending. “The data show that in the year since the climate law passed, spending on clean-energy technologies accounted for 4 percent of the nation’s total investment in structures, equipment and durable consumer goods — more than double the share from four years ago,” writes Jim Tankersley for The New York Times.
Learn More
The Roosevelt Project
The Roosevelt Project takes a multidisciplinary approach to examine the transitional challenges associated with progress toward a deeply decarbonized U.S. economy. The project aims to chart a path forward through the transition that minimizes worker and community dislocations and enables at-risk communities to sustain employment levels by taking advantage of the economic opportunities present for regional economic development.
Learn More
The CATE Project
The Climate Action Through Education Project aims to develop a science-based climate curriculum for U.S high school students, placing particular emphasis on reaching populations who are underserved and on countering climate denial messages. The curriculum will inform students about the causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change, while equipping them with the knowledge and sense of agency to contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation.
Learn More
The E2e Project
Through an interdisciplinary approach to the so-called ‘energy efficiency gap’, the E2e Project seeks to evaluate and strengthen policies and incentives for improved energy efficiency. Proven research designs used to achieve these aims include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental designs, with data and customer access provided through formal partnerships with private-sector companies.
Learn More