Author Archives: Scott Anders
Paying for Carbon Performance
Historically in California, programs to encourage energy-efficient or renewable energy technologies provide upfront financial incentives. While the dollar amounts of these incentives are typically developed in part based on the lifecycle costs and performance of the technology in question, very … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
The Cost of a CAP Part 2: How Much is This Climate Action Plan Going to Cost Our City?
More and more, local jurisdiction staff, decision makers, and stakeholders are interested in the cost of implementing climate action plan measures and actions. We are often asked by local jurisdiction officials some form of the question: how much is thing … Continue reading
Posted in Greenhouse Gas
Tagged CAPs, Climate Action Plans, Cost Analysis, local government
2 Comments
Does Your Rooftop Solar System Reduce Your Carbon Footprint? It Depends…
At first glance this is a pretty straight forward issue. If you put solar modules on your home or business, you are generating clean, emissions-free electricity. Right? Well, it depends…in part on how you paid for your system. If you … Continue reading
Causation as the Basis for Attributing Greenhouse Emissions from Electricity
I have written about the importance of electric emissions factors to estimating greenhouse gas emissions in inventories and the impacts of policies to reduce emissions (see here, here, and here). This post discusses the issue of attributing emissions from electricity … Continue reading
Posted in Greenhouse Gas
Tagged climate action plan, climate planning, electric, Electricity, greenhouse gases, methodology
3 Comments
Estimating the GHG Emissions Impacts of Reducing or Displacing Electricity: Is it time for a standard method in California?
California has adopted legislation and has executive orders in place laying out aggressive, long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. There are also specific energy policies including those to increase efficiency, generate more renewable electricity, and to reduce fossil fuel use … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas, Renewable Energy
Tagged AB 32, California, Carbon Dioxide, CEQA, climate planning, Electricity, Energy, Greenhouse Gas, Renewable
2 Comments
Splitting the Emissions Baby: Allocating GHG Reductions in the Electricity Sector Part II
In my last post, I discussed the dilemma of how to allocate the avoided greenhouse gas (GHG) emission between policies that policies to increase renewable electricity and reduce electricity consumption. Estimating the effects of increased renewable first will artificially increase … Continue reading
Splitting the Emissions Baby: Allocating GHG Reductions in the Electricity Sector Part I
One area of our work at EPIC is to provide technical support to cities, counties, and regional planning organizations in the climate planning process. This work includes estimating greenhouse gas emissions for inventories and the reductions expected from a variety of policies … Continue reading
Posted in Greenhouse Gas
Tagged climate planning, Electricity, Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas, local government, Renewable
3 Comments
Half-Empty Planes: Utilization Rates for California’s Electric Grid Part II
In Part I of this post, we discussed the concept of asset utilization — or load factor — and looked at recent trends for California’s investor-owned utilities (IOU). The trend over the past two decades for IOU load factors has been … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged California, Carbon Dioxide, Demand, Electricity, Greenhouse Gas, Load, Load Factor, Policy, SDG&E
3 Comments
Half-Empty Planes: Utilization Rates for California’s Electric Grid Part I
The electric grid is designed to handle the highest demand expected in a given period, commonly referred to as peak demand. Depending on many factors, the time needed for peak demand and period of high demand approaching peak can be … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Greenhouse Gas
Tagged Asset Utilization, California, Demand, Demand Reponse, Load, Load Factor, SDG&E, Time-of-Use
3 Comments
The Canary in the Sunshine: San Diego Continues to Reach Net Energy Metering Caps First
San Diego has a history of being a leader in rooftop solar. In a March 2015 report by Environment California, San Diego ranked 2nd in total capacity installed and 4th in capacity per person. Previous versions of this same report … Continue reading
Posted in Legislation, Renewable Energy
Tagged AB 327, net metering, photovoltaics, San Diego, solar
2 Comments
