Book contents
- Climate Rationality
- Climate Rationality
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction and Overview
- Part I The Costs of Precautionary Policy
- 2 The Endangerment Game
- 3 The Precautionary Principle
- 4 The EPA’s Newfound Role in Regulating Automobile Mileage
- 5 “It Will Bankrupt You” – Using Environmental Regulations to End the Mining and Use of Coal in America
- 6 The Clean Power Plan, the Rule of Law, and the EPA’s Takeover of State and Regional Electricity Systems
- 7 Renewable Power and the Reliability and Cost of Electricity
- 8 Renewable Power Subsidies and Mandates
- 9 Spinning the Tort Liability Roulette Wheel
- Part II The Other Side of the Story
- Part III Toward Rational Climate Policy
- References
- Index
7 - Renewable Power and the Reliability and Cost of Electricity
from Part I - The Costs of Precautionary Policy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2021
- Climate Rationality
- Climate Rationality
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction and Overview
- Part I The Costs of Precautionary Policy
- 2 The Endangerment Game
- 3 The Precautionary Principle
- 4 The EPA’s Newfound Role in Regulating Automobile Mileage
- 5 “It Will Bankrupt You” – Using Environmental Regulations to End the Mining and Use of Coal in America
- 6 The Clean Power Plan, the Rule of Law, and the EPA’s Takeover of State and Regional Electricity Systems
- 7 Renewable Power and the Reliability and Cost of Electricity
- 8 Renewable Power Subsidies and Mandates
- 9 Spinning the Tort Liability Roulette Wheel
- Part II The Other Side of the Story
- Part III Toward Rational Climate Policy
- References
- Index
Summary
In order to understand and evaluate any proposal, such as the Obama EPA’s Clean Power Plan, to shift American electricity generation to rely more heavily on renewable power, one must first understand the basics about how the US electricity system works. As we shall see in this chapter, moving to a higher share of renewable power while ensuring the reliability of electricity supply is far from trivial. The cost of a system with a high renewable power share is far greater than the cost of simply building and operating wind and solar farms. It includes not only the costs of building new transmission lines, and upgrading transmission stations and substations, but also the cost of electricity from rapidly dispatchable power sources such as natural gas turbines that can provide power when solar and wind power are unavailable. Together, these costs cause high electricity prices in systems with high renewable power penetration.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Climate RationalityFrom Bias to Balance, pp. 149 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021