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Adopting electric end-use technologies instead of fossil-fueled alternatives, known as electrification, is an important economy-wide decarbonization strategy that also reduces criteria pollutant emissions and improves air quality. In this study, we evaluate CO2 and air quality co-benefits of electrification scenarios by linking a detailed energy systems model and a full-form photochemical air quality model in the United States. We find that electrification can substantially lower CO2 and improve air quality and that decarbonization policy can amplify these trends, which yield immediate and localized benefits. In particular, transport electrification can improve ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), though the magnitude of changes varies regionally. However, growing activity from non-energy-related PM2.5 sources—such as fugitive dust and agricultural emissions—can offset electrification benefits, suggesting that additional measures beyond CO2 policy and electrification are needed to meet air quality goals. We illustrate how commonly used marginal emissions approaches systematically underestimate reductions from electrification. Electrification is a decarbonization strategy that has the potential to reduce pollutant emissions and improve air quality. Here the authors evaluate CO2 and air quality co-benefits of electrification scenarios in the United States and find that electrification can substantially lower CO2 and improve ozone and fine particulate matter regionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building electrification is essential to many full-economy decarbonization pathways. However, current decarbonization modeling in the United States (U.S.) does not incorporate seasonal fluctuations in building energy demand, seasonal fluctuations in electricity demand of electrified buildings, or the ramifications of this extra demand for electricity generation. Here, we examine historical energy data in the U.S. to evaluate current seasonal fluctuation in total energy demand and management of seasonal fluctuations. We then model additional electricity demand under different building electrification scenarios and the necessary increases in wind or solar PV to meet this demand. We found that U.S. monthly average total building energy consumption varies by a factor of 1.6×—lowest in May and highest in January. This is largely managed by fossil fuel systems with long-term storage capability. All of our building electrification scenarios resulted in substantial increases in winter electrical demand, enough to switch the grid from summer to winter peaking. Meeting this peak with renewables would require a 28× increase in January wind generation, or a 303× increase in January solar, with excess generation in other months. Highly efficient building electrification can shrink this winter peak—requiring 4.5× more generation from wind and 36× more from solar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the upcoming changes in the electricity industry including electrification, and the drive toward fossil-free generation, and the role of energy storage (ES) in electrification and the operation of a future electric grid without fossil fuels. Though our discussion is primarily focused on the United States electricity system, the issues affecting the operation of future electric grids are global. While the United States is prototypical of other highly developed and energy-intensive countries, variations in renewable energy production and storage, end energy usage, market structure, and policy, among other factors, make each country somewhat unique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describe increasing use of technology in education and identify broadband as necessary component of an adequate education. It mentions need of broadband access and use in Minnesota's metro schools with its use in rural schools and discuss the impact on rural curriculum. It also mentions legislative investment in and approach to statewide broadband access on the Rural Electrification Act and rural broadband scarcity prevents rural students from receiving an adequate education.

The primary approach in Alberta has been that the distribution of utility services delivered by investor-owned utilities are subject to full economic regulation by the Alberta Utilities Commission, whereas if public utility services are delivered by municipalities it has been recognized that the services should be principally regulated by the municipal council rather than the Commission. Affording the municipal council, or its equivalent, regulatory jurisdiction over municipally owned utilities involves a more politically responsive form of regulation. The role of the Commission in this context is limited. The Commission has exercised narrow jurisdiction to ensure that rates established for municipally owned utilities are internally and externally consistent, and to ensure that such rates are not unreasonably discriminatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public and regulatory policies, coupled with government support through legislation and financial incentives including tax breaks, provide the impetus for transforming the energy industry in the United States. The transition from an industrial era closed‐loop one‐way power flow system to a flexible multipronged open system is going to require time and money. The flexible multipronged system is characterized as one in which communications and energy flows are two‐way, with multiple buyers and sellers competing in markets unconstrained by geography. Contracts for differences (in the form of energy credits, e.g., zero‐energy credits for nuclear power, renewable energy credits, carbon allowances, etc.) play a large role in defining the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of fossil fuels in the future and the environmental effects such as the carbon footprint of the existing methodologies to produce electricity is an increasing area of concern. In rural areas of under-developed parts of the world, the problem is lack of access to electrification. DC microgrids have become a proven solution to electrification in these areas with demonstrated exceptional quality of power, high reliability, efficiency, and simplified integration between renewable energy sources (principally solar PV) and energy storage. In the United States, a different problem occurs that can be addressed with the same DC microgrid approach that is finding success internationally. In disinvested, underserved communities of with high unemployment and low wages, households contribute a significant portion of their income toward the fixed cost of their electrical utility connection, which by law must be supplied to every household. This paper analyzes a residential DC microgrid in an urban, underserved area that enables the sharing of renewable and stored energy resources between dwellings. The goal of the residential DC microgrid is to drive down to fixed costs of utility-provided electricity to all participants, such that the percentage of utility cost to total household income comes can be made comparable to that of more advantaged communities. A group of renovated dwellings constitute the community which the DC microgrid would serve. The distributed installation of solar panels and battery storage among dwelling locations are optimized based upon varying consumption patterns. Also, consumption patterns during different seasons of the year are considered. Electrical distribution architectures within the dwellings are based upon conventional AC. Each dwelling has a DC interface to the residential microgrid and progressive insertion of DC loads, with associated household DC distribution, is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the transmission and generation of electricity on Indian reservations in the United States. Activities of the Rural Electrification Administration for the electrification of areas; Hydroelectric energy potential in reservations; Details of the Meriam Report on conditions among Native Americans.

From 1930 to 1960 rural communities, mainly in the U.S. South and Southwest, gained access to electricity. In addition to lights, the benefits included easier clothes washing, refrigeration, and pumped water. This article uses differences in the timing of electricity access across rural counties to study the effects on infant mortality and fertility. Rural electrification led to substantial reductions in infant mortality but had little effect on women's fertility. The increase in electricity access between 1930 and 1960 can account for 15 to 19 percent of the decline in rural infant mortality during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the role of 21st century electric cooperatives in the contest for power for progressives and conservatives in the U.S. Topics include the service of rural electric cooperatives (RECs), demand for electricity in the country, and creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Rural Electric Administration (REA. Other topics include rural electrification, government plans for power lines and economic development, and civil rights movement for African American local governments.

[Display omitted] • A novel approach to study sector-level potential industrial heat pump applications. • The potential energy savings by electrifying process heat are 325 PJ p.a. in 2050. • The potential CO 2 savings by electrifying process heat are 31 Mt p.a. in 2050. • Electrified process heat supply can already abate 10 Mt of CO 2 p.a. in 2021. • The costs are high due to the large disparity between electricity and fuel prices. Decarbonization of the industrial process heat supply through electrification could contribute significantly to climate change mitigation efforts. In the U.S. industry, thermal processes accounted for more than two-thirds of the total final energy demand in 2021. Cross-cutting electrification technologies like industrial heat pumps are suitable for the process heat supply to several industrial unit operations in a sustainable way while also improving overall energy efficiency. This study employs a bottom-up approach to investigate the techno-enviro-economic potentials of deploying high-temperature and steam-generating heat pumps in the major U.S. food manufacturing sectors in different timeframes. The results show that the annual technical potential energy and CO 2 savings by electrifying process heat supply are 325 PJ (or approximately 20% of the total final energy demand in U.S. food manufacturing) and 31 MtCO 2 (equivalent to the annual CO 2 emissions from over 6 million cars in the U.S.) in 2050, respectively; however, these incur additional costs in each sector. Although there may be individual cost-effective opportunities for electrifying heat supply in specific industrial sites, the overall costs are estimated to be high in the food sectors due to the large disparity between electricity and natural gas prices and low heat source temperatures. To overcome the identified techno-economic barriers, comprehensive action plans for different stakeholders are needed. This study provides novel insights that should inform policymakers' and executives' decisions about the electrification of the current and future U.S. industrial heat supply in relevant industrial sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I study the impacts of one of the largest regional development projects in American History, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), on a variety of economic outcomes. The TVA has been noted as an example of how to develop a region's water power potential to stimulate growth. In what follows, I show using a county-level panel dataset, that the TVA had little impact on economic growth in the South. I attribute these results to the institutional history of the TVA and the contractual agreements it signed in an effort to expand its service territory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines graphic visualization and visuality in Lester Beall’s 1937 series of posters for the United States Rural Electrification Administration. The posters are commonly thought of as raising public awareness of the benefits of electricity in the rural America, but what was meant by public and awareness in 1937 in terms of rural reform in the United States has remained unclear until now. This article posits that to understand how these posters were seen in 1937 requires an acknowledgment of how Beall’s posters graphically visualized the complexities of rural electrification, and how graphic visualization was contiguous with bureaucratic communication and the visual sensitivity of a public. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines graphic visualization and visuality in Lester Beall’s 1937 series of posters for the United States Rural Electrification Administration. This series of posters is commonly thought of as raising public awareness of the benefits of electricity in rural America, but it has been unclear as to what was meant by ‘public’ and ‘awareness’ in 1937 in terms of rural reform in the United States. This article posits that to understand how these posters were seen in 1937 requires that there be an accounting of how Beall’s posters graphically visualized the complexities of rural electrification, and how graphic visualization was contiguous with the visual cultural style of bureaucratic communication and the visual sensitivity of a public. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite its widely recognized importance, electricity is not yet available everywhere, and there are many areas of the globe which still depend on alternative sources of energy such as wood, charcoal and kerosene. In contrast, the USA was the first country to be fully electrified. This article explores the current challenges faced by developing countries, presents the historical evidence from the USA and compares these experiences discussing the policy relevance of the comparison. Far from being a smooth process, the electrification process in the USA was a long and complex transition. The article analyses the challenges and policy responses that characterized the US electrification process. One of the outstanding features of these policies is that they are quite comprehensive and include subsidies and credit schemes, house ownership policies, mass media campaigns, the provision of adequate repair service and the direct involvement of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on electrifying Arkansas in the twentieth century, examining reasons behind the slowness in electrifying rural areas. It considers the influence of the Arkansas Power & Light Company (AP&L), its founder Harvey Couch, and its general counsel Hamilton Moses. The author explores conflicts between private and public utilities, including the AP&L and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a U.S. federal program established under former President Franklin Roosevelt.

The article presents the four-year project to establish a financially self-sustaining electricity operations in rural villages of Honduras with an aim to help reduce poverty in the areas. The project started as a humanitarian engineering project by students and faculty at Baylor University. The scheme has evolved into a social entrepreneurship involving companies in the U.S. and Honduras. The students are members of the university's Engineers With a Mission.

Abstract: This paper addresses the need for electricity of rural areas in southern Iraq and proposes a photovoltaic (PV) solar system to power a health clinic in that region. The total daily health clinic load is 31.6kWh and detailed loads are listed. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) optimization computer model for distributed power, “HOMER,” is used to estimate the system size and its life-cycle cost. The analysis shows that the optimal system’s initial cost, net present cost, and electricity cost is US$ 50,700, US$ 60,375, and US$ 0.238/kWh, respectively. These values for the PV system are compared with those of a generator alone used to supply the load. We found that the initial cost, net present cost of the generator system, and electricity cost are US$ 4500, US$ 352,303, and US$ 1.332/kWh, respectively. We conclude that using the PV system is justified on humanitarian, technical, and economic grounds. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Customer choices and competition have led the electric utilities to undergo major regulatory and technological changes while power sector reform continues. A part of this change also originates from the rapid emergence of viable small-scale distributed generation (DG) sources that are highly competitive with grid-delivered electricity in the isolated areas. In this article, the cost-effectiveness of renewable DG sources (i.e., photovoltaics, small-scale wind turbines, and biomass gasifiers) are assessed and compared with centralized generation for the case of a rural and isolated island in the western state of India using the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER), developed and provided by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The model identifies a least cost set of various DG and centralized grid capacities and ranks them based on a life cycle cost. The adoption of DG technologies (especially wind and biomass gasifiers) provide no-regret options with significant CO2 emission mitigation potential when operated under net-metering scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surveys the broad access of rural electrification under the New Deal's Rural Electrification Administration (REA) during the New Deal era in the northern and central Rocky Mountain states in the United States. Impact of electricity; Accusation against the New Deal; How REA administrators responded to inquiries regarding rural electrification programs.

Assesses the attitudes of the rural people towards farm electrification in the United States between 1920-1940. Hesitation of the farmers to adopt electricity; Impact of electricity on landscape transformation; Implication of electrification for farm modernization.

Addresses issues confronting rural electric cooperatives in the United States. Includes purchase of wholesale power for resale to members; Importance of market intelligence; Unbundling of the business into discrete activity areas; Selected activities of notable cooperative leaders.

The paper focuses on rural electric cooperatives (RECs) retail pricing policies. The primary objective is to examine the relationships between REC prices and internal factors. Several recurrent issues are analyzed including the extent to which REC prices deviate from cost-of-service criteria, whether system scale significantly influences inter REC price variations, the effect of property tax exemption on user group prices, the price influences of REC self-generation and the beneficiaries of consumers' density subsidization. REC provides power to a wide segment of the population of the U.S. As a result, their operating and pricing practices influence the well-being of many individuals. The findings clearly suggest that user classes differ in the extent to which they benefit from scale economies, self-generation, and consumer density. They also differ in the extent to which prices are primarily cost related. There is evidence that residential and commercial prices are more significantly influenced by power costs and state-local tax treatment than are industrial prices.

The article focuses on public utility and national policy related to the electric power industry in the U.S. The federal government had launched an active public power program, involving hydro development, aid to state and municipal undertakings, and rural electrification, all of which created new and difficult problems of integration. State regulation had demonstrated its incompetence to deal with the organizational problem and federal regulation did not exist, except for the restricted function of licensing hydroelectric projects on navigable streams. The U.S. Congress passed minimal legislation designed to effect a partial abolition of holding companies and to establish limited federal control over interstate operations. The approach was negative, objectives limited and the technique restrictive. Three sectors of the industry—industrial power representing 20 percent of the total, private utilities representing 60 percent and public undertakings representing 20 percent—differ so fundamentally in outlook and motivation that it is impossible to unify them by voluntary action alone. If the potential advantages of integration are to be secured, positive governmental action on a national scale will be required.

• End-use electrification could accelerate and increase generation capacity additions. • Electrification could support greater cost-effective integration of renewables. • Costs per incremental unit of electricity grow modestly with electrification. • Electrification reduces energy sector emissions and primary energy consumption. Electrification of end-use technologies could have important implications for bulk power sector planning, operations, and impacts. By combining previously-defined electrification scenarios with capacity expansion modeling, we evaluate the potential challenges and opportunities associated with electrification. Our scenario analysis reveals that electrification reduces energy consumption and air emissions from across the energy sector, and its impacts on energy system costs are modest due, in part, to the abundance of low-cost resources in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]