Full Title: 2016 Standard Scenarios Report: A U.S. Electricity Sector Outlook
Author(s): Wesley Cole, Trieu Mai, Jeffrey Logan, Daniel Steinberg, James McCall, James Richards, Benjamin Sigrin, and Gian Porro
Publisher(s): National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Publication Date: November 1, 2016
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Since the mid-2000s, the U.S. power sector has been undergoing unprecedented change (see Figure 1). The shale gas revolution has led to an abundance of low-cost natural gas and, with it, a dramatic increase in gas-fired generation. Similarly, renewable generation technologies have experienced large reductions in cost and improvements in performance which, coupled with renewable energy policies, have aided in increasing investment and generation from renewable energy capacity. These increases in generation from natural gas and renewables have precipitated a decline in coal generation to levels not seen since the 1980s. The resulting energy mix has driven down power sector carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions such that 2015 emissions were 21% below 2005 levels (EIA 2016c).