Rising fuel prices are pushing adoption of EVs, heat pumps, and more.
As Christopher Knittel notes: supply shocks raise global oil prices, "those increases trickle down to gasoline."
For policymakers: shocks can drive change, but only with lasting policy.
#ClimatePolicy #EnergyTransition
Unlike oil price shocks, which affect the cost of utilizing existing capital, critical mineral price shocks influence the cost of creating new capital without altering the cost of existing capital. This paper compares the impacts of critical mineral and oil prices on an economy.
Working Paper cover depicting a person trying to balance on price chart swings.
As global economies increasingly shift towards electrification and low-carbon energy, understanding the impact of critical mineral price shocks compared to traditional oil price shocks has become crucial.
ceepr.link/3QDiwBa
Check out an article written by MIT's Brian Deese and Robinson Meyer of @heatmap.news about the newly launched Electricity Price Hub.
heatmap.news/energy/elect...
The hub provides month-to-month estimates of residential electricity prices and bills for utilities across the United States, from 2020 to the present. For the largest utilities, these estimates are broken down into their core components.
The Electricity Price Hub is a partnership between @heatmap.news and MIT CEEPR in collaboration with CleanEcon designed to bring much-needed clarity to the conversation around energy affordability. It is a new public data platform built to address this information gap.
electricity.heatmap.news
Do renewables raise electricity prices? New CEEPR research finds Renewable Portfolio Standards and utility-scale wind & solar are linked to lower prices. But some rooftop solar rate structures can shift grid costs to non-solar customers. Rate redesign can help.
Are renewables to blame for the contemporary rise in American household electricity bills? A new paper by Fischer Argosino and @knittelmit.bsky.social analyzes the most recently available 25-years of data to address this increasingly salient policy question.
ceepr.link/4cr6t32
As EU lawmakers are looking to soften the continent's CO2 price, it's worth remembering that policy makers can overcome political constraints by complementing CO2 pricing with subsidies without sacrificing much economic efficiency, as I and @knittelmit.bsky.social show here: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...
In the NYT, our Faculty Director Christopher Knittel weighs in on data center policy — from on-site power to moratoriums.
Get it right, and we support the grid + AI growth. Get it wrong, and costs rise.
Policy brief:
buff.ly/VyIYRum
NYT: buff.ly/eoXJ9rx
Electric vehicle adoption is a key part of climate and transportation goals, and local policies can make a big
difference. One such policy is allowing EVs to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes even with a single driver. A new paper examines how these exemptions affected EV adoption
ceepr.link/4qV4veK
The misalignment between system benefits & current investments may reflect a rational response to deep uncertainty - yet it may perpetuate a high-risk, high-reward paradox typical of breakthrough tech. This ambiguity calls for a more deliberate evaluation of fusion’s role in future energy systems.
Using a high-resolution energy system model (PyPSA-Eur) and a probabilistic valuation framework, the authors' findings indicate that the later fusion becomes available, the greater will be the demands on its economic competitiveness and the need for early integration into energy system planning.
Fusion energy offers clean, firm, and geographically flexible power, but decades of delays have left investors skeptical. A new Working Paper shows that investor confidence in successful commercialization remains below 20%.
ceepr.link/3Ov3ahb
In a new paper, a team of researchers including @guntherglenk.bsky.social analyze the impact of alternative accounting rules for assessing the carbon intensity of electrolytic hydrogen on the financial and emission performance of Power-to-Gas (PtG) systems. Check it out here:
ceepr.link/403PLPu
This research commentary contributes to the debate by means of a review of the history of an analogous debate in corporate financial accounting standards, which can be helpful for identifying lessons that can instruct the discussion on inventory and consequential accounting for Scope 2 emissions.
Currently, the Protocol's metrics attempt to inventory emissions directly attributable to the company’s electric load, subject to the constraints of available data. A competing alternative, known as ‘consequential’ or ‘impact accounting’, looks beyond the boundary of the company’s own operations.
Many companies report their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with the accounting criteria laid out in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s (the Protocol) Corporate Standard. Emissions from the generation of purchased electricity falls into the Protocol’s Scope 2 category.
For a number of years, a debate has been brewing concerning the best way to report on the indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity. Check out a new Research Commentary by @johnparsons.bsky.social on the topic:
ceepr.link/4rs0Rtp
The global transition to clean energy depends heavily on lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles, renewable energy storage, and consumer electronics. Stable battery prices are therefore crucial for making clean technologies competitive with fossil fuels.
Specifically, the researchers investigate how a country’s position within the global trade network of CRMs, processed materials, and batteries influences the stability of the price they pay for lithium-ion batteries.
A new paper examines the impact of critical raw materials and their processed derivatives on countries’ exposure to lithium-ion battery price fluctuations:
ceepr.link/49MXRk6
The fragmentation of global supply chains and rising geopolitical tensions have spurred concerns about import dependence -- particularly for clean energy technologies and critical raw materials. A new paper analyzes these challenges from the perspective of market failures:
ceepr.link/3YtxkmN
New paper out today in Nature Energy!
We evaluate how Congressional proposals for policy-driven transmission expansion would shape U.S. electricity costs, emissions, and reliability. Big implications for climate and grid planning.
rdcu.be/eS7lj
#EnergyPolicy #Transmission #CleanEnergy
In a new Working Paper, the authors argue that financial accounting offers an architectural template for corporate carbon accounting systems. CO2-statements enable a unified, comprehensive assessment of the direct and indirect emissions of a business entity and its products.
ceepr.link/449ELTl
Findings from the latest MIT/Harvard Roosevelt Project phase highlight strategies for a just and competitive transition in steel, critical minerals, and the electric grid:
ceepr.mit.edu/mit-harvard-...
Data centers are rapidly growing electricity users, raising concerns about their impact on the grid and
decarbonization. Their ability to shift workloads over time offers demand-side flexibility. A new MIT CEEPR Working Paper analyzes this potential:
ceepr.link/47bkuyJ
The private benefits of the peak alert program swamp any social benefits. These private benefits arise, however, by shifting capacity costs onto other utilities and load customers in the region.
An email alert is sent out to residential customers to encourage load shifting and energy saving during specific hours on the following day. Using hourly load data, Gib estimates that the program reduces load by roughly 0.7 MWs per hour during the hours covered by the alert, or roughly 2 percent.
