Reliability of Supply in a Green Energy Future
Managers of regional electric grids have adapted to accommodate the rapid growth of renewable generation without jeopardizing the reliability of supply far better than many anticipated. However, as traditionally-dispatchable generators continue to exit the grid and renewables comprise an ever-increasing percentage of the generation mix, keeping the lights at an affordable cost on will become more challenging, requiring tougher choices about how to balance cost, reliability and the environmental impacts of electricity generation. There are analogous reliability challenges associated with decarbonizing other sectors of the economy as well. The conversations listed here discuss scholarship that addresses those issues. We have divided them here into two categories: those modeling or otherwise addressing the need for firm, low carbon sources of electricity necessary to backup intermittent renewables, and those discussing the role of green or renewable gases in a low-carbon future.
Conversations
Firm Low-Carbon Electricity
'Public Utility' -- Steering Competitive Energy Markets Toward Public Ends
William Boyd
Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law & Institute of Environment & Sustainability
Maintaining Reliability in a Distributed Energy World
Amy Stein
Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Market Solutions to Reliability Challenges in Electricity Markets
Frank Wolak
Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies, Director, Program on Energy & Sustainable Development Stanford University
The Best Route to Net-Zero Emissions
Jessie Jenkins
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Fellow, Harvard University Center for the Environment
Naive Energy Markets
David B. Spence
Baker Botts Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law, Professor of Business, Government & Society, McCombs School of Business
Modeling Decarbonization in the West
Arne Olson
Senior Partner, E3
June 12, 2019
Capacity Markets, State Green Energy Subsidies, and State-Federal Jurisdictional Conflicts
Ari Peskoe
Director, Harvard Electricity Law Initiative
Reliability and Renewables in Competitive Energy Markets
Joshua Macey
Visiting Assistant Professor, Cornell Law School
June 10, 2019
PG&E Wildfire Liability and Bankruptcy
Michael Wara
Senior Research Scholar, Woods Institute for the Environment & Fellow, Stanford Law School
October 4, 2019
Keeping the Lights on with a High-Renewables Grid
Joshua Rhodes & Colin Meehan
Vibrant Clean Energy (Rhodes) & First Solar (Meehan)
August 7, 2019
Green or Renewable Gases in the Low-Carbon Future
Renewable Natural Gas & A Decarbonized Energy Future
Michael Webber
Josey Centennial Professor of Energy Resources, University of Texas, and Chief Science & Technology Officer, ENGIE
March 27, 2020
Long-term storage needs, ‘green gases,’ & the energy transition
Todd Davidson
Research Associate, University of Texas Energy Institute
Market Solutions to Reliability Challenges in Electricity Markets
Frank Wolak
Holbrook Working Professor of Commodity Price Studies, Director, Program on Energy & Sustainable Development Stanford University
Energy Realism
Monika Ehrman
Professor, University of Oklahoma School of Law
July, 2019