Across the country, solar farms have experienced rapid growth, supported by advancements in technology, cost reductions, and policy initiatives such as state-level renewable portfolio standards and tax credits. As shown in Map 1, roughly 18% of ground-mounted PV facilities in the U.S. were installed between 2021 and 2023, with a notable portion of these projects […]
To gain a deeper understanding of the current energy landscape in Georgia and the southeast, this blog series examines emerging topics in the energy sector, provides timely information on key energy challenges and opportunities, and discusses how Georgia and the southeast are adapting to meet growing energy needs while embracing sustainable energy goals and supporting […]
Listen to the Curtailment 101 podcast: EPIcenter affiliates Gaurav Doshi and Matthew Oliver’s article in The Energy Forum discusses the why grid operators occasionally curtail wind and solar output when transmission capacity is insufficient or demand is low, and the economic and environmental impacts of these decisions. Congestion-based curtailment arises when the transmission network cannot […]
Municipalities have shunned solar farms because these large installations are believed to reduce property values. Now, in a first-of-its-kind study, Georgia Tech economist Laura Taylor shows that utility-scale solar farms don’t adversely affect sales prices for agricultural land. The work, published recently in the journal Land Economics, may help inform local decision-making. “As zoning boards […]
The assistant professor in applied economics researches, among other topics, ways to make the benefits of large electrification projects more transparent. It’s a chicken and egg situation: Should renewable energy projects launch first hoping that transmission lines to pipe generated power to distant places will follow on their heels? Or should the transmission lines be […]
As summers get increasingly hotter, expect more adverse effects on health. EPICenter grant recipient Pengfei Liu is exploring the connection between the two as a necessary step in climate adaptation. The trendlines point in one direction: The ten hottest years on record were all just in this nascent century. Summers, especially, are getting hotter. And […]