Emissions Impact of Electric Vehicle Adoption on Disadvantaged Communities

The benefits of electric vehicles (EVs) are typically associated with carbon mitigation to address climate change. However, a secondary effect that is much less commonly discussed is the shift of tailpipe pollutant emissions to pollutants coming from the smokestacks of electricity generation units. As electric vehicles are being adopted in relatively wealthier communities, there is a question as to whether pollution is being shifted from these communities to more disadvantaged, lower income communities which tend to be located near fossil fuel power plants. This project proposes to conduct a high-resolution accounting and measurement of the emissions and associated impacts through three phases of research. The first is to determine the pollution reduction from electric vehicle adoption in California at a high spatial resolution and to measure the corresponding electricity load demand from EVs. The second task is to estimate the upstream electricity pollution impacts by running the Grid Operation Optimized Dispatch (GOOD) model (an economic dispatch model that simulates the operation of the electricity grid) to meet the EV demand. Lastly, the health impacts coming from increased pollutant emissions can be determined by using an air quality model such as theEstimating Air pollution Social Impact Using Regression (EASIUR) or the Air Pollution Emission Experiments andPolicy analysis (APEEP) models. The technical work can assess the outcomes of the current and future levels of electric vehicle adoption on health related outcomes of disadvantaged communities.

• Record URL:
  https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/emissions-impact-electric-vehicle-adoption-disadvantaged-communities

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $112063
• Contract Numbers:

  DOT 69A3551747114

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Project Managers:

  Iacobucci, Lauren

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  1 Shields Ave
  Davis, California  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Jenn, Alan

• Start Date: 20211001
• Expected Completion Date: 20221231
• Actual Completion Date: 20231211
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air pollution; Communities; Electric vehicles; Environmental impacts; Health; Low income groups; Pollutants
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01782707
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: DOT 69A3551747114
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Sep 23 2021 11:21AM