An alternative to carbon taxes to finance renewable energy systems and offset hydrocarbon based greenhouse gas emissions
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1-s2.0-S2213138817300292-main.pdf
Size
2.54 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5e19d9f934ba05215454e376b85aa346
Author(s)
Paiva, Santiago
Taylor, David Donald James
Slocum, Alexander H
Date Issued
January 2017
Journal
Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Taylor, David D.J. et al. “An Alternative to Carbon Taxes to Finance Renewable Energy Systems and Offset Hydrocarbon Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 19 (February 2017): 136–145 © 2017 The Authors
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Carbon taxes are frequently proposed as a means to mitigate the hydrocarbon industry's environmental impact. This paper assesses the potential benefits of an alternative to carbon taxes (ACT), where hydrocarbon producers directly invest a fixed amount per unit produced into renewable energy systems (e.g., wind farms). Producers maintain ownership of the assets and reinvest a portion of revenue from them to further grow the renewable assets. This proposal could help producers gradually evolve from hydrocarbon to renewable energy companies – avoiding the job losses associated with sudden industry shifts. We present an in-depth case study of the Athabasca oil sands, and extend the results to other regions. We find that wind turbines purchased with an ACT of 12/barrel where 0.03/kWh of produced power is reinvested could offset all the greenhouse gas emissions from extracting and refining the region's bitumen, provided wind turbines were located at good wind sites. Finally, to increase the grid's ability to use the wind power generated, energy storage and grid systems should also be an option for ACT investing. Future work should focus on North Dakota, which has extensive hydrocarbon resources collocated with good wind resources. Keywords: Oil sands; Emissions; Wind power; Greenhouse gas
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SETA.2017.01.003
