Overview
With a population of more than 34 million and one of the world's largest economies, California is the tenth largest energy consumer in the world. Of this, three-quarters of the state's electricity needs are met by in-state power sources, from nuclear to distributed energy, via approximately 50,000 miles of transmission lines. Ultimately, the process of generating and distributing energy has wide-ranging and often detrimental environmental impacts on the state's ecological system.
As one of six major subject areas, Energy-Related Environmental Research (otherwise called the PIER Environmental Area, or PIER-EA) is responsible for addressing the environmental impacts and beneficial uses of electricity in California. As defined by the PIER strategic plan, the overall mission of the PIER-EA is to:
"develop cost-effective approaches to evaluating and resolving environmental effects of energy production, delivery and use in California; and explore how new electricity applications and products can solve environmental problems."
PIER-EA's goal is to resolve impacts from electricity generation, transmission, and use. In addition to addressing suspected and documented environmental impacts of electricity, PIER-EA provides basic scientific information and tools needed to understand the environmental implications of technology and fuel types to inform the R&D choices undertaken elsewhere in the PIER Program. The research conducted in the PIER-EA is therefore crosscutting.
To fulfill its mission, the PIER-EA team, with the help of the University of California's Institute for Energy Efficiency (CIEE), has developed a long-term research plan (Plan) that targets energy-related environmental research projects for the PIER-EA program. The Plan is intended to be a living document and will be updated to remain current with end-user needs, with the state of the science in the subject areas being addressed, and with pending legislative or regulatory decisions. The Plan is a portfolio of environmental research issues of both short-term and long-term relevance. Similarly, research activities addressing these issues will include a mix of efforts having short-term and long-term duration.
As shown below, core research is being conducted in air quality, aquatic resources, land use and habitat, and global climate change. Although this ongoing and proposed research is topic-specific, there is a common need for improved methods, tools, and data to better understand the nature and scope of the problems. These improvements are necessary for predicting the environmental consequences of technology, regulatory, and policy choices relative to the electricity system. Additionally, these improvements are key to developing mitigation strategies for California. Below are PIER-EA's long-term research issues identified in the Plan.
Although highly controlled, emissions from power plants represent a significant source of pollution. The trend toward distributed energy resources will likely continue along with efforts to increase energy efficiency and load management, each having uncertain impacts to air quality. R&D is needed to:
- Estimate impacts of emerging energy technologies (e.g., distributed energy) and fuels on air quality
- Quantify the air quality impacts of energy-efficiency and load management measures for preparing air quality management plan baselines and as offsets or emission reduction credits
- Predict community level impacts and alleviate/prevent disproportional environmental burden on minority and low-income communities (environmental justice)
Electric power plants that use water for power production or cooling alter or eliminate natural ecological and hydrological functions in aquatic systems. These facilities affect riverine, estuarine, and marine systems, and they have contributed significantly to aquatic species decline. PIER-EA sponsored studies will address:
- Adverse impacts, including fatality from impingement (i.e., trapping aquatic organisms in intake screens) and entrainment (i.e., passing aquatic organisms through cooling systems and pumping intake valves and turbines)
- Blockage of fish movement and migration
- Fragmentation of ecosystems
- Alterations in normal stream flows and temperatures
- Cumulative effects of these and other factors from the operation of multiple hydroelectric facilities
Wildlife and avian interactions with utility structures can result in electrocutions and collisions can result in negative impacts to bird populations, costly power outages, and violations of state and federal laws. Future research efforts need to verify:
- The frequency of these interactions on a statewide basis
- Their significance to the affected species
- Tools to reduce bird fatalities
To determine transmission line systems' cumulative contribution to habitat loss and degradation, more data are required of:
- Both the detrimental and beneficial effects of transmission line right of ways; for example, transmission lines can contribute to fragmentation and promotion of exotic species, two of the primary factors leading to species endangerment and decreased biodiversity.
In order to apply global circulation modeling results to California regional climate, so that researchers can analyze the impacts of global climate change in California and an evolving electricity system in particular, it is necessary to:
- Develop simple and accurate guidelines to estimate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in power plants that are attributable to the implementation of electricity conservation efforts.
- Prepare comprehensive inventories of GHG emissions (e.g., CO2 emissions and their sources, methane emissions from the operation of hydropower facilities and other sources, N2O emissions and their sources, and other GHG emissions and their sources).
- Develop supply curves of GHG emissions-reduction options.
For these high-priority issues, specific research plans (roadmaps) are currently being developed by Planning Teams. The plans will describe the current research, identify scientific and technical research gaps and barriers, opportunities to leverage investments with other research institutions, and include long-, mid-, and short-term goals, milestones, and strategies for addressing the issues.
For more information on each issue area, please visit the individual web-pages.