October 25, 2002—The Pacific Northwest can diversify its sources of electricity over the next two decades by embracing modest amounts of alternative energy sources without significant impact on the region’s economy, according to a new report from RAND called “Generating Electric Power in the Pacific Northwest: Implications of Alternative Technologies.”
Researchers conducted a series of analyses to determine the impact on the region’s economy if up to 20 percent of proposed new natural gas power plants were replaced with energy efficiency, and new wind and solar electricity generation.
This scenario, researchers found, has both good and bad impacts on the region’s economy. Employment at gas-fired power plants falls and the higher-cost of alternative power slows some economic growth. But employment increases at the region’s companies that make wind-power equipment and the price of natural gas drops as demand on supplies is reduced. Overall, the impacts tend to cancel each other out.
However, such a strategy would give the region greater flexibility to deal with shortages of hydroelectric power during low water years or variations in the supply and cost of natural gas, which has benefits to businesses and other consumers.
In addition, the report estimates that a shift in power production would have a beneficial environmental effect, resulting in a significant reduction in the predicted growth of air pollution from natural gas power plants.
The full report is available from the RAND Web site.
