A Methodology for Calculating Emissions Reductions from Renewable Energy Programs and Its Application to the Wind Farms in the Texas ERCOT Region

Abstract

Recently Texas Legislature required adding 5,880 MW of generating capacity from renewable energy technologies by 2015, and 500 MW from non-wind renewables. This legislation also required the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to establish a target of 10,000 MW of installed renewable capacity by 2025, and required Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to develop a methodology for computing emissions reductions from renewable energy initiatives and the associated credits. In this legislation the Energy Systems Laboratory was to assist the TCEQ to quantify emissions reductions credits from energy efficiency and renewable energy programs. To satisfy these requirements the ESL has been developing and refining a method to annually calculate creditable emissions reductions from wind and other renewable energy resources for the TCEQ. This paper provides a detailed description of the methodology developed to calculate the emissions reductions from electricity provided by a wind farm. Details are presented for the wind farm Sweetwater I as well as results from the application of this procedure to all the wind energy providers in the Texas ERCOT region.