Health Benefits From Wind Power Could Quadruple If Polluting Power Plants Turn Down Output When Wind Is Available
Today, 10% of the electricity in the United States comes from wind power. Renewable energy benefits the climate, air quality and public health by replacing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from fossil fuels.
A new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that the health benefits associated with wind energy are more important than fossil-based energy generation when wind energy is available.
In a study published in the journal Science Advances , researchers analyzed hourly wind turbine activity and emissions from all of the nation's fossil fuel-fired power plants between 2011 and 2017. They map emissions by country and map pollutants among affected populations. They then calculated regional air quality and health care costs associated with each community.
In 2014, wind power linked to government policies improved overall air quality and led to $2 trillion in health benefits nationwide, the researchers said. However, only 30 percent of these health benefits reach the poor.
National health benefits could quadruple to $8.4 trillion if the energy industry cut wind power's generation of the cheapest fossil fuels, the team found. However, the results show a similar demographic structure.
"We found that prioritizing health care is a good way to increase benefits in the United States, which is great. But it shows that it doesn't eliminate disparities," said study author Noel Selin, a professor in the Information Institute Department. Department of Systems and Society and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. MIT.
"To address air pollution disparities, focusing only on the electricity or renewable energy sector and protecting the overall benefits of air pollution cannot address these real and persistent racial and ethnic disparities. Also, look at other sources of air pollution, such as major gender factors. This determines where crops are grown and where people live."
Celina's authors include lead author and former MIT graduate Mingao Qiu, Ph.D. 21, now at Stanford University, and Corwin Ziegler at the University of Texas at Austin.
Stop the service.
In the new study, the team analyzed the timing of wind power and fossil fuel power generation activity to see how regional energy markets adjust plant capacity to respond to renewable energy flows.
"One of the challenges and technical contributions of this work is to try to figure out which plants will respond to the development of wind energy," explains Qiu.
To do this, the researchers compared two historical data from 2011 to 2017: an hourly record of the electricity produced by the wind farms and a detailed report of the emissions of each energy source. plant in the United States. The databases cover each of the region's seven major electricity markets, with each market providing power to one or more states.
“California and New York have their own markets, New England covers seven states and the Midwest covers more,” Qiu explained. "We also cover 95% of wind power in the US."
In general, markets have adjusted to periods of wind power availability, mainly due to natural gas and small-scale coal generation. Some plants were more expensive to destroy than others, so the neglected plants were probably chosen for economic reasons.
The team then used a sophisticated atmospheric chemistry model to simulate wind conditions and chemical transport across the country, and determined where and what emissions produce particulate matter and ozone that harm air quality and human health. . Finally, the researchers were able to estimate the public health costs of pollution exposure using standard epidemiological methods to collect nationwide population demographic data from US census data.
This analysis found that in 2014, an integrated, cost-effective approach resulted in $2 trillion in health benefits or savings from replacing fossil fuel energy in wind operations. A small portion of these benefits went to disadvantaged groups, such as minorities and vulnerable communities, although the share varied from state to state.
"It's a more complicated story than we first thought," says Qiu. "Certain populations are at greater risk of air pollution, including low-income people and racial minorities. What we're seeing is that wind energy development can close that gap in some regions, but increase it in others. It depends on which fossil fuel plants are displaced. are".
Power composition
Researchers have looked at how emissions and associated health benefits would change if more fossil fuel phasing was prioritized in the wind energy era. They adjusted emissions data to reflect several alternative scenarios: the healthiest and most polluting plants were shut down first; And the other two conditions are the plants that produce the most sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, respectively, are the first to reduce production.
While each condition increases overall health benefits, and the first condition in particular quadruples health benefits, the original disparities persist: Minorities and low-income populations still receive fewer health benefits than many in more affluent communities.
"We're at the end of the road and there's no way to fix that gap unless we know which assets to move," Selin said.
"One of the things that makes me optimistic about this area is the increased focus on issues of environmental justice and equity," Celine said. "Our job is to understand the most effective strategies for solving these problems."
This story was reprinted for MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular website covering MIT research, innovation and teaching news.
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