Program Benefits
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Program Benefits
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| Urban Heat Island mitigation provides a significant means for increasing energy efficiency, improving local and regional air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing storm water run-off, and improving public health. |
Energy Efficiency
The potential energy efficiency benefits from UHI mitigation
are enormous. It is estimated that one sixth of the electricity
consumed in the United States goes to cool buildings at an annual
cost of $45 billion. Models operated LBNL demonstrate that implementation
of UHI mitigation strategies can lower the need for cooling energy
by 18 percent (or approximately $8 billion) nationwide.
Air Quality
UHI mitigation strategies improve air quality by reducing the
amount of emissions at the energy production source, and by retarding
the formation of ozone within the urban domain as a consequence
of lower ambient air temperatures.
Greenhouse Gas Reduction
The Department of Energy estimates that a nationwide UHI program
could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 45 million tons.
Storm Water Management
One of the mitigation strategies for UHI management involves
increasing urban vegetation in the form of shade trees, grasses
and other vegetative cover. An estimated $100 billion of storm
water management costs nationwide would be avoided by the amount
of storm water run-off that would be absorbed by the increased
vegetation.
Health Care
USDOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) estimate
that UHI mitigation could reduce national health care costs related
to air pollution and heat stroke by $5 billion dollars annually.
List of Program Benefits
For the following categories the program will ...
State Governments
- Produce broad societal benefits including improved health and habitability of cities
- Reduce energy costs and increase the profitability of businesses
- Increase economic development in a less stringent regulatory environment for air and water quality
- Reduce long-term highway budgets through longer life-cycle of pavement composition
- Create jobs through program implementation
Energy Resources
- Increase system wide energy supply and distribution stability
- Bring peak and base loads more in line with each other
- Postpone the need for new production facilities
Advantages for Electric Utilities
- Reduce peak demand and free up existing power for alternative uses
- Extend capacity to avoid power shortages and the need to buy power
- Avoid brownouts, blackouts, and grid failure
- Increase energy supply for trading
- Expand customer base with existing production levels
- Attract new business to a more efficient service area
- Provide emission credits where available
Air Quality
- Reduce emission through energy efficiency and DSM of cooling energy
- Reduce ozone formation through lower air temperatures
- Reduce evaporative emissions from mobile and stationary sources through lower surface temperatures
- Reduce biogenic emissions through lower temperatures
- Provide an economical means for emission controls, minimizing the need for more costly emission control measures
- Qualify as a SIP component for NAAQS compliance:
- avoid more stringent NSR requirements from deteriorating compliance status
- avoid federal highway funding restrictions
Health Care
- Improve public health
- Reduce health care costs
- Improve habitability of urban areas
Continue to next section on "implementation."
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