A study examines how agriculture influences mortality due to poor air quality in the United States.
Image credit: Jason D. Hill.
Edited by Edward L. Miles, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and approved May 15, 2013 (received for review December 19, 2012)
Abstract
When wind or solar energy displace conventional generation, the reduction in emissions varies dramatically across the United States. Although the Southwest has the greatest solar resource, a solar panel in New Jersey displaces significantly more sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter than a panel in Arizona, resulting in 15 times more health and environmental benefits. A wind turbine in West Virginia displaces twice as much carbon dioxide as the same turbine in California. Depending on location, we estimate that the combined health, environmental, and climate benefits from wind or solar range from $10/MWh to $100/MWh, and the sites with the highest energy output do not yield the greatest social benefits in many cases. We estimate that the social benefits from existing wind farms are roughly 60% higher than the cost of the Production Tax Credit, an important federal subsidy for wind energy. However, that same investment could achieve greater health, environmental, and climate benefits if it were differentiated by region.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: iazevedo{at}cmu.edu.
Author contributions: K.S.-E., I.L.A., M.G.M., and J.A. designed research; K.S.-E. performed research; and K.S.-E., I.L.A., M.G.M., and J.A. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
Data deposition: A spreadsheet of the full results reported in this paper for both wind and solar is available at http://cedmcenter.org/tools-for-cedm/marginal-emissions-factors-repository/.
See Commentary on page 11666.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1221978110/-/DCSupplemental.
Benefits of wind and solar generation
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- Physical Sciences
- Sustainability Science
- Social Sciences
- Sustainability Science
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