THE POWER OF
CHANGE
Innovation for Development and Deployment of
Increasingly Clean Electric Power Technologies
Committee on Determinants of Market Adoption of Advanced Energy
Efficiency and Clean Energy Technologies
Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy
Policy and Global Affairs
Board on Energy and Environmental Systems
Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
A Report of
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
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This activity was supported by Contract Number DE-PI0000010, Order Number DE-DT0004510, with the U.S. Department of Energy; the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Presidents’ Circle Fund, and the National Academy of Sciences Thomas Lincoln Casey Fund. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-37142-1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-37142-2
Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/21712
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. The Power of Change: Innovation for Development and Deployment of Increasingly Clean Electric Power Technologies. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21712.
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COMMITTEE ON DETERMINANTS OF MARKET ADOPTION OF ADVANCED ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES
Charles “Chad” Holliday (NAE), Chair
Chairman
Royal Dutch Shell, PLC
Jerome “Jay” Apt
Professor, Tepper School of Business
Co-director, Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, Carnegie Mellon University
Frances Beinecke
President (ret.), Natural Resources Defense Council
Nora Brownell
Co-founder, ESPY Energy Solutions
Paul Centolella
President, Paul Centolella & Associates
Senior Consultant, Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich
David Garman
Principal and Managing Partner (ret.), Decker Garman Sullivan and Associates, LLC
Clark Gellings (NAE)
Independent Energy Consultant
Fellow (ret.), Electric Power Research Institute
Bart Gordon
Partner, K&L Gates LLP
Former U.S. Representative, Tennessee, U.S. House of Representatives
William “Bill” Hogan
Raymond Plank Professor of Global Energy Policy and Research Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Richard K. Lester
Japan Steel Industry Professor, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Associate Provost, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
August “Bill” Ritter
Co-Founder, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University
Former Governor, State of Colorado
James Rogers
President and CEO (ret.), Duke Energy
Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt
Managing Director and Chairman, Clean Tech Initiative Co-chair, Military Services Network, Barclays Bank
Peter Rothstein
President, NECEC
Adm. Gary Roughead (Ret.)
Annenberg Distinguished Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Maxine Savitz (NAE)
General Manager for Technology Partnerships (ret.), Honeywell, Inc.
Mark Williams (deceased)
PROJECT STAFF
Paul Beaton
Study Director
Gail Cohen
Director
Stephen Merrill
Director Emeritus
David Ammerman
Financial Officer
Aqila Coulthurst
Associate Program Officer
Alan Crane
Senior Scientist
Christopher J. Jones
Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow
Karolina Konarzewska
Program Coordinator
Frederic Lestina
Senior Program Assistant
Kavitha Ramane
Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow
Erik Saari
Senior Program Assistant
David Visi
Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow
BOARD ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ECONOMIC POLICY
For the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, this project was overseen by the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP), a standing board established in 1991, with the collaboration of the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES). The mandate of the STEP Board is to advise federal, state, and local governments and inform the public about economic and related public policies to promote the creation, diffusion, and application of new scientific and technical knowledge to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the U.S. economy and foster economic prosperity for all Americans. The STEP Board and its committees marshal research and the expertise of scholars, industrial managers, investors, and former public officials in a wide range of policy areas that affect the speed and direction of scientific and technological changes and their contributions to the growth of the U.S. and global economies. Results are communicated through reports, conferences, workshops, briefings, and electronic media subject to the procedures of the National Academies to ensure their authoritativeness, independence, and objectivity. The members of the STEP Board and Academies staff involved with this project are listed below:
RICHARD K. LESTER, Chair, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JEFF BINGAMAN, Former U.S. Senator, New Mexico
ELLEN DULBERGER, Ellen Dulberger Enterprises, LLC, Mahopac, New York
ALAN M. GARBER (NAM), Harvard University
RALPH E. GOMORY (NAS/NAE), New York University
MICHAEL GREEENSTONE, The University of Chicago
JOHN L. HENNESSY (NAS/NAE), Stanford University
LUIS M. PROENZA, University of Akron
KATHRYN L. SHAW, Stanford University
JAY WALKER, Walker Innovation, Inc., Stamford, Connecticut
STEP STAFF
GAIL COHEN, Director
DAVID AMMERMAN, Financial Officer
PAUL BEATON, Senior Program Officer
DAVID DIERKSHEIDE, Program Officer
FREDERIC LESTINA, Senior Program Assistant
ERIK SAARI, Senior Program Assistant
SUJAI SHIVAKUMAR, Senior Program Officer
BOARD ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS
The Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES) is a unit of the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (DEPS) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Since 1975, the BEES Board (formerly the Energy Engineering Board [EEB]) has conducted a diverse program of studies and related activities (workshops, symposia, etc.) to produce authoritative, independent recommendations about the science and technology aspects of public policy questions in energy, the environment, national security, and defense.
ANDREW BROWN, JR. (NAE), Chair, Delphi Corporation (retired), Troy, Michigan
DAVID ALLEN, The University of Texas at Austin
W. TERRY BOSTON (NAE), PJM Interconnection, LLC, Audubon, Pennsylvania
WILLIAM BRINKMAN (NAS), Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
EMILY A. CARTER (NAS/NAE), Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
JARED COHON (NAE), Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BARBARA KATES-GARNICK, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts
DEBBIE NIEMEIER, University of California, Davis
MARGO OGE, McLean, Virginia
JACKALYNE PFANNENSTIEL, Independent Consultant, Piedmont, California
MICHAEL RAMAGE (NAE), ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (retired), New York City
DOROTHY ROBYN, Consultant, Washington, DC
GARY ROGERS, Roush Industries, Livonia, Michigan
ALISON SILVERSTEIN, Consultant, Pflugerville, Texas
MARK THIEMENS (NAS), University of California, San Diego
JOHN WALL (NAE), Cummins Engine Company (retired), Belvedere, California
ROBERT WEISENMILLER, California Energy Commission, Sacramento, California
MARY LOU ZOBACK (NAS), Stanford University, Stanford, California
BEES STAFF
JAMES ZUCCHETTO, Director
DANA CAINES, Financial Associate
LINDA CASOLA, Senior Program Assistant
Preface
Reliable access to affordable energy is vital to any economy. Growing economic activity in America and around the globe has led to ever greater demands for energy. Energy intensity (energy consumption per unit of national output) has decreased substantially over the past 40 years in the United States, and energy-efficiency measures have played an important role in reducing the growth in demand for electricity. Nonetheless, the rise in demand and growing recognition of the need to control the pollutants emitted as a result of energy consumption due to increased economic activity have generated a growing need for increasingly clean electric power. One approach to meeting this need has been to install pollution control technologies that capture pollutants after fuel is burned, effectively making the electricity production cleaner; investments in such pollution control technologies have increased significantly since 1990. An additional approach is to use energy sources such as wind, solar, or geothermal that innately produce little to no pollution. Investments in technologies that enable the use of such fuels also have increased recently, more than doubling from 1999 to 2005 and then rising more than six-fold from 2006 to 2012.
The tremendous growth in investment in and use of these various technologies has resulted in dramatic decreases in emissions of pollutants that cause smog, ground-level ozone, and acid rain, and these decreases have resulted in significantly cleaner air across the United States. Despite these gains, however, greenhouse gas emissions have remained relatively constant. A primary challenge is that, absent a price on carbon dioxide, fossil fuels remain the cheapest abundant source of energy, while technologies that make it possible to capture and utilize or store carbon emissions remain costly and nascent. Advanced technologies for capturing or reducing carbon pollution hold great promise for changing the equation, yet many of these technologies can be developed only to the early prototype stage because private-sector financing cannot accommodate the enormous capital requirements and multidecade lag before return on investment can be realized. Technologies for the use of renewable fuel sources such as wind and solar remain costlier still. Nuclear
power accounts for two-thirds of the zero- or low-carbon U.S. electricity supply, but the nuclear fleet is beginning to face age-related attrition issues.
It is within this context that the Department of Energy, with the support of the U.S. Senate, requested that the National Academies convene a committee of experts to analyze the determinants that can enable market adoption of advanced energy efficiency and increasingly clean energy. Specifically, the committee’s task was to “determine whether and how federal policies can accelerate the market adoption of advanced energy efficiency and low- or non-polluting energy technologies.” The committee was asked to focus on the post-research and development (R&D) stages of the electric power supply chain, including scaled-up deployment and widespread adoption, and to consider a range of policy instruments, such as subsidies, tax incentives, demonstration projects, loan guarantees and other financial instruments, procurement, and regulation.
Since 1991, the National Research Council (NRC), under the auspices of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, has undertaken a program of activities designed to improve policy makers’ understanding of the interconnections among science, technology, and economic policy and their importance for the American economy and its international competitive position. The board’s activities have corresponded with increased policy recognition of the importance of knowledge and technology to economic growth. New economic growth theory emphasizes the role of technology creation, which is believed to be characterized by significant growth externalities.
Under the auspices of the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, the NRC has undertaken a program of studies and other activities to provide independent advice to the executive and legislative branches of government and the private sector on issues in energy and environmental technology and related public policy. The board directs expert attention to issues surrounding energy supply and demand technologies and systems, including resource extraction through mining and drilling; energy conversion, distribution and delivery, and efficiency of use; environmental consequences of energy-related activities; environmental systems and controls in areas related to the production, energy conversion, transmission, and use of fuels; and related issues in national security and defense.
A central focus of NRC analysis has been the importance of energy innovation to the growth of the U.S. economy and to the reduction of negative environmental, public health, and other consequences of energy-related activities. Many performance gains remain to be achieved in energy technologies, such as the capture of carbon from the use of fossil fuels, advanced nuclear power, renewable fuels for electricity generation and for vehicles, and increasingly efficient use of energy. Yet undertaking the efforts required to produce the innovations needed to transform the performance of the energy sector so as to mitigate the risks from greenhouse gases and other pollutants may be the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. It is a worldwide challenge that will require tremendous effort and leadership.
Throughout history, the United States has consistently demonstrated that its greatest resource is its people and their talent for innovation and leadership. There has never been a greater need or opportunity for American leadership than that posed by the challenge of achieving increasingly clean electric power, a challenge that is the subject of this report.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On behalf of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the committee expresses its appreciation for and recognition of the insights, information, experiences, and perspectives made available by the many participants in workshops and roundtables held during the course of this study. We would particularly like to recognize Nidhi Santen, Scot Holliday, Vignesh Gowrishankar, Xin “Charlotte” Wang, David Taylor, and Nathaniel Green for their invaluable research and technical assistance in the preparation of this report. We also thank Frederic Lestina, Erik Saari, Alisa Decatur, and Rona Briere for their assistance in preparing this report for publication.
We would also like to recognize the contributions of committee member Mark Williams who passed away on March 6, 2016. Mark made numerous contributions to the committee, including the fundamental approach to this report’s organization. The quality of this report reflects his invaluable contributions.
Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Joseph Aldy, Harvard University; George Apostolakis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; William Brinkman, Princeton University; David Cash (Retired), Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs; Ahmad Chatila, SunEdison, Inc.; Linda Cohen, University of California, Irvine; Michael Corradini, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Lewis Davis, GE Power Generation Products; Michael Ettenberg, Dolce Technologies; Peter Fox-Penner, The Brattle Group; Kenneth Gillingham, Yale University;
Robert Repetto, International Institute for Sustainable Development; and Catherine Wolfram, University of California, Berkeley.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Elisabeth Drake (Retired), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Christopher Whipple (Retired), ENVIRON. Appointed by the Academies, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Chad Holliday | Paul Beaton |
Contents
Key Findings and Recommendations
Technologies for Electric Power Generation and Energy Efficiency
Impact of the Mix of Electricity Generation Sources on Emissions Over Time
Technology Readiness and Cost of Currently Available Cleaner Technologies
Will Expanded Deployment Make Increasingly Clean Technologies More Economically Competitive?
The Importance of Innovation in Increasingly Clean Power Technologies
Strategies for Overcoming the Obstacles to Accelerated Innovation
4 THE ROLE OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN INCREASINGLY CLEAN ELECTRICITY
Potential Electricity Savings through Energy Efficiency
Barriers to the Development and Adoption of Cost-Effective Energy-Efficiency Technologies
Energy-Efficiency Policies in the United States
Renewable Fuel Power-Generating Technologies
Challenges and Opportunities for the Electric Power Industry
Description of the Current Electric Power System
7 POLICIES SUPPORTING INCREASINGLY CLEAN ELECTRIC POWER TECHNOLOGIES
History of Government Support for New Electricity Sources
Lowering the Costs and Risks of Financing the Deployment of Increasingly Clean Energy Technologies
Box, Tables, and Figures
BOX
TABLES
2-1 Promising Technologies for Increasingly Clean Electric Power
B-1 Summary of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for Year 2022 Entry (2015 $/MWh)
C-1 Sources of Market Failure and Some Illustrative Potential Policy Instruments
C-3 Learning by Doing (LBD) Premium
D-1 Technology Readiness Levels
D-2 Promising Technologies for Increasingly Clean Electric Power
FIGURES
2-1 Growth in electricity demand, with projections to 2040
2-2 Percentage of current U.S. net electricity generation by primary fuel source, 2015
2-3 Additions to U.S. electricity generation capacity, 1985-2014
2-4 Total installed U.S. electricity generation capacity, 2014-2040 (projections from 2016 onward)
3-1 Stages of the energy innovation process
3-2 Stages of the innovation process and valleys of death
3-3 Stages of the innovation process and key obstacles to acceleration
3-4 Obstacles at specific stages of the innovation system and candidate solutions
4-1 Annual energy use of a new refrigerator, 1950-2008
B-1 Levelized cost of electricity for plants entering service in 2022 (2015 $/MWh)
B-3 Renewable electricity generation by type, projections from 2016 on
C-1 Stages of the innovation process and key obstacles to acceleration