Transitioning to an electrical grid powered by the sun and the wind instead of oil, natural gas, and coal will produce substantial economic benefits, especially in rural and manufacturing areas, suggests a paper discussed at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) conference on September 26.
The trend away from generating electricity with carbon-dioxide-producing fossil fuels “has been widely celebrated for the climate benefits it brings,” write the authors, Costas Arkolakis of Yale University and Conor Walsh of Columbia University. “However, both the academic literature and popular analysis have placed somewhat less emphasis on the economic impacts of the transition to a clean grid.”