Measuring the Environmental Benefits of Wind-Generated Electricity

Joseph Cullen

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2013, vol. 5, issue 4, 107-33

Abstract: Production subsidies for renewable energy, such as solar or wind power, are rationalized by their environmental benefits. Subsidizing these projects allows clean, renewable technologies to produce electricity that otherwise would have been produced by dirtier, fossil-fuel power plants. In this paper, I quantify the emissions offset by wind power for a large electricity grid in Texas using the randomness inherent in wind power availability. When accounting for dynamics in the production process, the results indicate that only for high estimates of the social costs of pollution does the value of emissions offset by wind power exceed cost of renewable energy subsidies.

JEL-codes: L94 L98 Q42 Q48 Q51 Q53 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.5.4.107
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (138)

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