What are the costs and benefits of renewables? Focusing on the German Energywiende and similar efforts in California and Minnesota, that’s one of the questions my colleagues and I at UT (McCombs School of Business, LBJ School of Public Affairs, School of Law, and Cockrell School of Engineering) asked at the recent Fifth Annual Electricity Conference, hosted here in Austin. This year’s theme: “The Nexus of Markets and the Environment.”
Christoph Weber (University of Duisburg-Essen) provided a critical analysis of the German Energywiende in his keynote, highlighting the unsustainable expenditures incurred by Germany in its pursuit of low-carbon electricity production.
My panel considered the integration of distributed renewable energy resources, critically examining the idea of a distribution system operator, which has been advocated by former FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, among others.
The third panel analyzed EPA rules, and the final panel considered the experience in Mexico, currently moving towards a competitive generation market.
Click here for copies of the panel presentations.
In the current IEEE Power & Energy Magazine, (“
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