If the friction between politics and adoption of a national energy policy could generate electricity, the South would be the nation's leading power provider.
"Policy makers in many of the Southern states have voted against national policies to promote clean energy, arguing that the South doesn't have enough renewable resources," said Marilyn Brown, Professor of energy policy in the School of Public Policy.
Working to change such perceptions, and the policies and actions that result from them, are an emphasis of Dr. Brown’s research. She is a leader in shaping national energy and climate-change policies.
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One example of this emphasis concerns the much-debated "renewable energy standard." A recent version of the standard introduced in Congress calls for producing 15 percent of the nation's electricity with renewable resources by 2020. Absent Congressional agreement on the particulars for a national standard, many states have adopted their own. The national average for electrical generation with renewables is 10.4 percent. Brown’s research shows that the southeastern states average is dramatically lower at 4.9 percent.
There’s been “little effort in the Southeast," she says, to examine clean, renewable alternatives to coal-fired power plants that would push that percentage higher. Since the region consumes 45% of the nation’s electricity, this is a critical area of focus.
In a 2011 study in partnership with Duke University, Brown and her team of students set about determining if or how the Southeast could do better. Their research, the first of its kind in the region, assessed the economic potential of renewable electricity generation under various policy scenarios.
The work utilized the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), a sophisticated energy-economic tool used by the U.S. Department of Energy to project the production, consumption, conversion and costs of energy. Forecasts are based on a host of macroeconomic, demographic, technological and energy-consumption factors. Georgia Tech and Duke are the only two universities in the country with the capacity to modify NEMS to analyze alternative future policy scenarios.
Brown took an interdisciplinary approach to gathering modeling data. She and her team drew upon the expertise of many Georgia Tech schools to characterize the latest energy-efficiency, power generation, storage, and smart grid advances.
"We also characterize what's in the research and development pipeline," she said. "We want to capture not only what technologies are in the marketplace today, but what emerging technologies might make a difference over the next several decades. By simulating the incubation of new technologies in a supportive policy environment, we can show policymakers how energy systems can be transformed.”
"Once we updated the estimates of renewable energy resources and costs, we were able to run different scenarios with NEMS to see, for instance what happens to electricity costs if we put a price on carbon, or what happens if we extend tax credits for electricity from renewable resources?”
Brown’s team found that renewable sources already exist that could provide 28 percent of the South's electricity by 2025 without any significant new cost to consumers. Wind, biomass and hydropower offer the greatest potential, according to the study.
Brown explains that one of the common assumptions dispelled by the research is that alternative energy sources have to be deployed on a grand scale to be cost effective – think of familiar images such as solar panels and wind farms spread over hundreds of acres.
Brown points to the potential of small dams. "There are many dams across the country that have a drop in elevation that would support the production of power with a turbine," she said. "You could generate a small amount of electricity, say five to 10 megawatts, at a very large lake that's being used to supply water for a municipality. You wouldn't have much of an ecological footprint because the dam and lake already exist. There are many examples of this throughout the South including north Georgia."
Brown uses a wide array of strategies for accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy policies and technologies not only for the southeast, but for the nation - high impact research studies that reach policy makers, and outreach to business and the public through avenues such as newspaper opinion pieces and her quarterly Energy Buzz. She is a member of the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority which is the nation’s largest public utility and serves in influential national positions such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Among her recent works is a broad-reaching study released in July 2011 showing how U.S. manufacturing could consume much less energy by adopting technologies such as high-efficiency motors, co-generation of heat and power, and advanced sensors and controls. This type of large-scale modernization would require significant capital, workforce development, and regulatory reform, but, says Brown, “could revitalize manufacturing and make industry part of the nation’s solution to global warming.” The ambitious study focused on specific recommendations for seven federal policies. Read more about the study, which was published by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with which Brown is affiliated, in collaboration with the Georgia Tech (report available here).
Brown joined the IAC School of Public Policy in 2006, where she has helped grow the school’s reputation as a leader in analysis of science and technology policy. What motivates Brown to tackle the complex issues that are the focus of her work?
“I believe that our world already has most of the sustainable energy technologies it needs, but it faces a system of reinforcing barriers that support incumbent technologies, handicap innovation, and prevent change. I am motivated by the hope that smart policies can tackle such barriers to a sustainable energy future. ”
Brown's newest book, "Energy Security and Climate Change: A Global Overview of Technology and Policy Options" was published this fall by MIT Press.
Marilyn A. Brown
Professor, School of Public Policy
- Ph.D., Ohio State University, Geography
- M.R.P., University of Massachusetts, Regional Planning
- B.A., Rutgers University, Political Science
Marilyn A. Brown joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a distinguished career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and held various leadership positions. She is a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. Her current research addresses the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies and the design of policy options to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Recent projects include an assessment of the $3 billion/year multi-agency R&D portfolio comprising the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program, analysis of the geography of metropolitan carbon footprints, and development of a national climate change technology deployment strategy as required by the 2005 Energy Policy Act.
