Air quality is a serious health risk for Californians; the California Air Resources Board recently estimated that approximately 5,400 premature deaths per year are due to fine particulate matter exposure alone. Electrification has important co-benefits for air quality, and studying the effects of potential electrification strategies on California’s ability to meet its air quality standards requires careful examination.
To explore this, EPRI linked an electric sector and energy end-use model to a chemical transport model to evaluate the air quality co-benefits of efficient electrification in California. This study examines the potential for efficient electrification in California to meet the state’s decarbonization targets and quantifies the air quality co-benefits of such a strategy, specifically for ozone and fine particulate matter in the South Coast Air Basin.
Authors Eladio Knipping, John Bistline, and Geoffrey J. Blanford