North American Windpower: Study Finds Advanced Electricity Technologies Lower Costs

Study Finds Advanced Electricity Technologies Lower Costs

by NAW Staff Monday August 20 2007

Aggressive development and implementation of a full portfolio of advanced electricity technologies could reduce the economic cost of cutting future U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than 50% while meeting the continuing growth in demand for electricity, according to a recent report by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a Palo Alto, Calif.-based research organization.

Previous research has shown that absent investments in advanced technologies, significant reductions in future emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases will result in higher prices for electricity and natural gas and reduced economic growth, EPRI says.

However, the new study found, by developing and deploying advanced electricity technologies, such as a "smart" electricity grid, the U.S. could achieve the same reductions in CO2 emissions at a much lower cost - saving as much as $1 trillion in future U.S. economic growth under some scenarios analyzed.

The full study is available at epri.com

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