Modeling Multi-pollutant Reductions and Health Impacts from Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency improvements in buildings directly reduce the amount of fossil fuels we burn and the pollution in the air, resulting in substantial health benefits and pollution reduction potential for states. Energy efficiency is achieved when outdated practices and technologies are replaced with new, less wasteful approaches. In our homes and offices, we achieve energy efficiency by tightening building envelopes to prevent conditioned air from leaking out, replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs and old appliances with more efficient ones.

Energy efficiency holds significant pollution reduction potential for states. State decision makers can rely on energy efficiency to help manage air quality, protect public health, and keep electricity affordable, all while growing the local economy. US EPA's National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), a set of regulations that limit pollutants harmful to public health, recognize energy efficiency is a strategy to help states reach compliance. While efficiency is a valuable strategy for achieving low-cost, multi-pollutant reductions, it is necessary for state air officials to understand the location of those reductions in order to rely on efficiency policies and programs as a strategy for air quality management.

This presentation will evaluate the avoided power plant pollution that energy efficiency can achieve in three states and describe how those states can take credit for the air quality benefits. Using EPA's AVERT (AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool), we will assess the location of avoided tons of pollution from an energy efficiency scenario. We will then use these results as an input to the CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System) model to simulate atmospheric conditions and chemical changes that will impact the associated pollutant reductions from energy efficiency. We will then demonstrate the pollutant reduction potential and health impacts of energy efficiency and describe its use for compliance with NAAQS in the three states. This presentation will also provide key insight into the location of pollutant reductions from energy efficiency and help states to understand its value as a strategy for achieving compliance with air quality regulations.