U.S. agency handbook helps regulators support renewable energies

WASHINGTON, DC, US, 2004-11-17 Refocus Weekly

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has developed a handbook to assist air regulators to develop emissions regulations that recognize the pollution prevention benefits of renewable energy technologies.

Highly efficient generation systems, such as renewables and combined heat & power technologies, offer the potential to cost-effectively reduce fuel consumption and associated emissions, explains ‘Output-Based Regulations: A Handbook for Air Regulators.’ Output-based regulations recognize the environmental benefits of these technologies.

The document was produced by the EPA, the Green Power Partnership and the Combined Heat & Power Partnership.

Output-based regulations do not provide a special benefit to any particular technology and do not increase emissions; they simply “level the playing field by allowing energy efficiency and renewable energy to compete on an equal footing economically with any other method of reducing emissions.” For this reason, environmental groups and proponents of clean energy technologies have endorsed the use of output-based regulations, it says.

A number of factors support the growing interest in output-based regulations, including the growing difficulty in meeting increasingly stringent air quality standards and the fact that policymakers “realize that more efficient energy conversion and renewable energy technologies can have a substantial effect on reducing emissions” and create environmental benefits across all air quality programs. Growing interest in pollution prevention has focussed more attention on renewables as means of emission control, and avoiding pollution through renewables and energy efficiency can have long-term cost benefits through less reliance on emission control equipment and reduced fuel use.

There is increased interest in renewables, the document explains, with wind turbine technology becoming “significantly less expensive and more competitive in electricity markets. Growth in wind generation has been dramatic, yet small cost improvements can still make a significant difference. By allocating emissions allowances on an output-basis, these facilities can be financially rewarded for the contribution they make to meeting an emissions cap.”


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