Long-run Marginal CO2 Emission Rates Workbooks for 2020 Standard Scenarios Cambium Data

This dataset has been superseded by a new set of workbooks that can be found here: https://data.nrel.gov/submissions/183

These workbooks contain modeled estimates of long-run marginal CO2 emission rates (LRMER) for the contiguous United States. The LRMER is an estimate of the rate of emissions that would be either induced or avoided by a long-term (i.e., more than several years) change in electrical demand. It incorporates both the projected changes to the electric grid, as well as the potential for an incremental change in electrical demand to influence the structural evolution of the grid (i.e., the building and retiring of capital assets, such as generators and transmission lines). It is therefore distinct from the more-commonly-known short-run marginal, which treats grid assets as fixed.

In addition to year-over-year data, the Levelized LRMER worksheet within each workbook is set up to produce a levelized long-run marginal emission rate based on user-provided inputs. These levelized LRMER values are intended for analysts to use when estimating the emissions induced (or avoided) by a long-term change in end-use electricity demand.

Three future scenarios are provided in separate workbooks: A Mid-case (i.e., business-as-usual), and two scenarios with relatively higher or lower renewable energy costs. For more details on these scenarios, see the Standard Scenarios 2020 Report (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/77442.pdf). For more data underlying each scenario, see the Standard Scenarios 2020 project (Cambium data) at https://cambium.nrel.gov/.

This data was produced as part of the Cambium project. For more details about the methodology, see the Cambium Documentation: Version 2020 (https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/78239.pdf).

This data is planned to be updated annually. Information on the latest versions can be found at https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/cambium.html.