Envisioning a Low Carbon, Lowest Cost Grid

In its 2014 report on global warming, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that carbon dioxide emissions must fall by as much as 70% by mid century to avoid the most “severe, pervasive and irreversible” damage from climate change. A key to reducing carbon emissions will be the near complete decarbonization of the global electricity system, which is today’s largest source of greenhouse gasses, and remains largely dependent on fossil fuels.

Kleinman Center Visiting Scholar Jesse Jenkins discusses the economics of building a ‘deeply decarbonized’ electricity system. Jesse, and a group of MIT engineers, have modeled future electricity systems to determine the mix of low carbon energy resources that will create tomorrow’s most resilient, cost-effective, and low-carbon electricity systems. Their research is currently working its way through peer review and will be released later this year.

guest

Jesse Jenkins

Assistant Professor, Princeton University

Jesse Jenkins is an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University. In 2017-2018, Jenkins was a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center.

host

Andy Stone

Energy Policy Now Host and Producer

Andy Stone is producer and host of Energy Policy Now, the Kleinman Center’s podcast series. He previously worked in business planning with PJM Interconnection and was a senior energy reporter at Forbes Magazine.