Sustainable Energy Options for Austin Energy

During the 2008-2009 academic year the City of Austin, on behalf of Austin Energy (AE), and Solar Austin co-funded a policy research project to review options for AE to achieve sustainable energy generation and become carbon neutral by 2020. This project developed methods to evaluate future power generation options for their feasibility and cost-effectiveness. The report evaluates different power generation technology options as well as demand-side management and other AE investment options to discourage future energy use and meet future projected energy demand. The project team assessed scenarios of alternate investments that could be made between 2009 and 2020 that would allow AE to produce and distribute the electricity its customers demand at a reasonable cost while reducing carbon dioxide emissions. This report describes a set of short-term and long-term investment options that can help AE, its customers, and be of use for developing sustainable electric utilities nationwide. The report comprises three volumes: volume I is a summary; volume II discusses energy demand and the characteristics of available power generation technologies; and volume III is a "Future Resource Portfolio Analysis" which evaluates eight energy portfolio scenarios in detail. This project was funded in part by the IC² Institute.