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Publications

Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy Policy Design, Evaluation, and Assistance

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab evaluates state and federal renewable energy policies, such as renewables portfolio standards (RPS) and system benefits charge (SBC) programs dedicated to the development of renewable energy, and provides expert assistance in effective policy design to both state and federal policymakers. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab staff also provide regular technical support to the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), an organization comprised of most of the state clean energy funds in existence throughout the United States. Through its relationship with CESA, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab publishes the ongoing case study series "Case Studies of State Support for Renewable Energy".

Project Team:

Ryan Wiser (Project Lead)
Mark Bolinger

Renewable Energy Economic and Benefits Analysis

A combination of high capital costs, low operating costs, and in some cases intermittent power output makes renewable energy technologies somewhat unique. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab analyzes the economics of, and markets for, renewable energy technologies, and examines the benefits and challenges of increased market penetration. Recent and planned work in this category includes:

• An investigation into whether diurnal and seasonal wind resource patterns significantly affect the economic value of different wind sites in the western United States, given temporal and locational fluctuations in wholesale power prices and customer load
   
• Development of an economic and policy analysis tool to evaluate the economics of small, customer-sited wind turbines in each state
   
• Analyses of the risk mitigation benefits of renewable energy, focused primarily on fuel price risk
   
• Assessment and analysis of the true cost of commercial wind power, as revealed through information contained in actual power purchase agreements
   
• Development of a national database of the cost of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems, used to assess the economics of PV over time by system type and location, as well as to inform effective incentive design.
   
• Assessment of the benefits of distributed, customer-sited PV installations.
   
• A summary of the treatment of renewable resources in utility integrated resource planning, and development of best practices.
   
• An analysis of the impact of financing on the cost of renewable energy projects, under commercial, municipal utility, and community ownership.
   
• Scenario development and modeling of policy and technical stress cases in the Energy Information Administration's National Energy Modeling System (NEMS).

Project Team:

Ryan Wiser (Project Lead)
Mark Bolinger
William Golove
Kristina Hamachi LaCommare
Galen Barbose
Mathias Fripp

Green Power Markets

The introduction of customer choice in the electricity sector creates a new market for renewable energy as customers are given the opportunity to voluntarily choose "green power" products. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab tracks and analyzes this emerging market opportunity, focusing on both residential and non-residential demand for renewable electricity products, in both restructured and still-regulated markets. Recent activities include a statistical analysis of green pricing program effectiveness, developing a model to provide a national forecast of future market growth, as well as conducting consumer opinion surveys and contingent valuation of various options for supporting renewable energy.

Project Team:

Ryan Wiser (Project Lead)
Mark Bolinger

Renewable Resource Acquisition Planning

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab provides assistance to consumer-owned utilities, municipal-owned utilities, and tribal utilities in procuring renewable energy or "green power" in wholesale electricity markets. LBNL also provides assistance with "green tag" purchases and with the development, analysis and evaluation of on-site renewable projects. Additional assistance includes development of wholesale renewable power solicitations and financial analysis of potential renewable acquisitions.

Project Team:

Bill Golove (Project Lead)
Ryan Wiser
Mark Bolinger