Estimating Human Health Impacts and Costs Due to Iranian Fossil Fuel Power Plant Emissions through the Impact Pathway Approach

Mojtaba Jorli, Steven Van Passel, Hossein Sadeghi, Alireza Nasseri and Lotfali Agheli
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Mojtaba Jorli: Department of Economics, Faculty of Management & Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, 14115-111 Tehran, Iran
Steven Van Passel: Department of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
Hossein Sadeghi: Department of Economics, Faculty of Management & Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, 14115-111 Tehran, Iran
Alireza Nasseri: Department of Economics, Faculty of Management & Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, 14115-111 Tehran, Iran

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-29

Abstract: Air pollutants from fossil fuel fired power plants harm the environment and human health. More than 91% of Iran’s electricity production is from thermal power plants that use natural gas, diesel, and fuel oil. We apply the impact pathway approach to estimate the health impacts arising from Iranian fossil-based electricity generation emission, and in a next step, we calculate monetary costs of the estimated damages, for a one-year period starting from 20 March 2016 through 2017. We use the new version of SIMPACTS (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria) to investigate the health effects from 61 major Iran fossil-based power plants separately. The selected plants represent 95.6% of total Iran fossil-based power generation. Using the individual and different power plant estimates, we avoid extrapolation and our results can be considered more reliable, taking into account spatial differences. The total damage cost is 723.42 million USD (2000). The damage cost per generated electricity varies from 0.06 to 22.41 USD/MWh and average plant damage cost is 2.85 USD/MWh. Accounting for these external costs indicates the actual costs of fossil energy. The results are useful for policy makers to compare the health costs from these plants and to decide on cleaner energy sources and to take measures to increase benefits for society.

Keywords: Iran electricity generation; fossil fuels; external costs; air pollution; impact pathway approach; benefit transfer; SIMPACTS 2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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