Benefit Evaluation Tools for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Policies
State and local energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) policies can deliver health benefits in many ways. To help state, local, and tribal decision-makers quantify and communicate these air quality, health, and economic benefits of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) policies, EPA’s State and Local Climate and Energy Program has improved and linked their two main quantification tools: the AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool (AVERT) and the CO-Benefits Risk Assessment (COBRA) Health Impacts Screening and Mapping Tool.
AVERT 3.0 has a simple user interface designed to meet the needs of environmental planners and other interested stakeholders. Use AVERT to quantify and evaluate the county, state, and regional emissions displaced at electric power plants by EE/RE policies and programs.
The COBRA Health Impacts Screening and Mapping Tool quantifies and monetizes the air quality and health impacts EE and RE policies at the county, state, regional, or national levels. Use COBRA to compare the health benefits of EE and RE policies against program costs, and map the related air quality, human health, and health-related economic benefits.
We have added functionality to make it easy to use AVERT and COBRA in tandem to quantify the health benefits of EE/RE:
- Results exported from either the Excel or Web Edition versions of AVERT can be imported into the desktop version of COBRA. Users click a button within AVERT to save their results as a .csv file. Within the COBRA desktop version they click on the “Load AVERT output file” button and select the .csv file to import.
- COBRA users can import AVERT modeling outputs as a policy scenario
This new linked functionality will make it easier to do screening-level analyses of the public health benefits of emission reductions from energy efficiency or renewable energy projects, programs, and policies.
Learn more about the benefits of state energy efficiency and state renewable energy.
Learn more about the benefits of local energy efficiency and local renewable energy.
Learn more about assessing the multiple benefits of clean energy.