Facing competition from cheap natural gas and a growing renewables market, coal-fired power plants are on the decline in the United States. But new research led by energy systems modelers at Princeton University demonstrates that traditional strategies for retiring coal plants based on minimizing costs could be leaving other climate and equity benefits on the table.
The analysis underscores the value of rethinking cost-driven retirement strategies, showing instead that climate- or equity-focused strategies would lead to lower carbon emissions, air pollution, and pollution-attributable deaths in Pennsylvania and nearby states. Their study was published on August 19 in Environmental Science & Technology.
“In the U.S., we have a unique policy window where we can be designing our retirement strategies differently in order to maximize the benefits to the climate and communities,” said research leader Wei Peng, assistant professor of public and international affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.