Carbon Free Boston Technical Reports
A technical dive into Carbon Free Boston
By Cutler J. Cleveland, Peter Fox-Penner, Michael J. Walsh, Margaret Cherne-Hendrick, Sucharita Gopal, Joshua R. Castigliego, Taylor Perez, Adam Pollack, and Kevin Zheng
May 2019
To supplement the Carbon Free Boston Summary, the Institute for Sustainable Energy (now the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability) provides further technical detail and an in-depth analysis of the strategies in buildings, transportation, waste, energy, and carbon offsets that together point the way to a carbon-neutral Boston. This research lays out the assumptions and approach for the state-of-the-art modeling work and describes in more detail the policy instruments and data that underlie the effort.
Key Findings
- There are three overarching strategies for decarbonization:
- reducing demand for energy through increased efficiency and decreased consumption;
- transitioning to clean energy electrification from fossil fuel-based energy systems; and
- procuring 100% carbon-free energy.
- New buildings represent a prime opportunity to limit increased energy demand, and subsequently emissions, by adopting net-zero policies. However, this will require retrofits in nearly 86,000 buildings in Boston.
- Investments in more long-term projects such as expansion of the MBTA and commuter rails can provide benefits in the future.
- Vehicle pricing strategies will likely need to be phased in to avoid potential backlash and allow people impacted by such policies to adjust.
- Electric vehicles may be the most cost-effective strategy (in terms of carbon abatement), given their potential impact.
- The City of Boston could require the procurement of 100 percent carbon-free electricity from a wide variety of sources (wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear) within or beyond the ISO-NE grid.
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