Emissions of electric vehicles in California’s transition to carbon neutrality

Alan Jenn

Applied Energy, 2023, vol. 339, issue C, No S0306261923003380

Abstract: California has a many activities targeting specific sectors to mitigate climate change. This study models several scenarios of future electric vehicle emissions in the state and explores untapped policy opportunities for interactions between sectors, specifically between the transportation and electricity grid. As electric vehicles become more prevalent, their impact on the electricity grid is directly related to the aggregate patterns of vehicle charging—even without vehicle-to-grid services, shifting of charging patterns can be a potentially important resource to alleviate issues such as renewable intermittency. This study involved the creation of a model to predict the potential emissions benefits of managed vs. unmanaged charging. The study finds that the lion’s share of emissions reduction in the light-duty transportation sector in California comes from electrification, with a cumulative 1 billion tons of CO2 reduction through 2045. This figure represents a decrease of about 4 tons CO2/capita/year from the average operation of Californian passenger vehicles in 2020 to about 40 kg CO2/capita/year in 2045. Decarbonization of the current grid leads to an additional savings of 125 million tons of CO2 over the same time-period. As the state moves towards these objectives through existing (and potential future) policies, additional policies to exploit synergies between transportation electrification and grid decarbonization could reduce cumulative emissions by another 10 million tons of CO2.

Keywords: Electric vehicles; Emissions; Electricity grid; Smart charging; ZEV; California (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923003380
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:339:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923003380

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.120974

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().