Air quality and public health co-benefits of 100% renewable electricity adoption and electrification pathways in Los Angeles
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15544179 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yun Li (0000-0001-8225-4554, University of Southern California), Vikram Ravi (0000-0002-5888-318X, National Laboratory of the Rockies), Garvin Heath (0000-0001-6010-4475, National Laboratory of the Rockies, corresponding author), Jiachen Zhang (0000-0002-6488-6686, University of Southern California), Pouya Vahmani (0000-0003-2519-6671, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Sang-Mi Lee (0000-0002-7781-2029, Bay Area Air Quality Management District), Xinqiu Zhang (Bay Area Air Quality Management District), Kelly T Sanders (0000-0003-4466-0054, University of Southern California), George Ban‐Weiss (0000-0001-8211-2628, University of Southern California), George A Ban-Weiss |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 034015-034015 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ad24cc |
| OpenAlex | W4391381068 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 29 |
To demonstrate how a mega city can lead in decarbonizing beyond legal mandates, the city of Los Angeles (LA) developed science-based, feasible pathways towards utilizing 100% renewable energy for its municipally-owned electric utility. Aside from decarbonization, renewable energy adoption can lead to co-benefits such as improving urban air quality from reductions in combustion-related emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NO x ), primary fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and others. Herein, we quantify changes to air pollutant concentrations and public health from scenarios of 100% renewable electricity adoption in LA in 2045, alongside aggressive electrification of end-use sectors. Our analysis suggests that while ensuring reliable electricity supply, reductions in emissions of air pollutants associated with the 100% renewable electricity scenarios can lead to 8% citywide reductions of PM 2.5 concentration while increasing ozone concentration by 5% relative to a 2012 baseline year, given identical meteorology conditions. The combination of these concentration changes could result in net monetized public health benefits (driven by avoided deaths) of up to $1.4 billion in year 2045 in LA, results potentially replicable for other city-scale decarbonization scenarios
Air pollutants · Air pollution · Air quality index · Business · Criteria air contaminants · Economics · Electricity · Electricity generation · Electrification · Environmental economics · Environmental protection · Geography · Meteorology · Natural resource economics · Renewable energy · Air Quality and Health Impacts · Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols · Climate Change and Health Impacts · Engineering · Environmental Science · Environmental Engineering
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| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |