In April 2023 the California Public Utilities Commission adopted the Net Billing Tariff (NBT) replacing the NEM2 rate structure governing net energy metering for distributed generation. In this study California residential photovoltaic (PV) interconnections data for a 5-year period are utilized to retrospectively analyze trends in battery storage (BESS) adoption, average system size, third-party finance, and electric vehicle use, comparing customers on NBT to those on NEM2. An economic benefit-cost model is then set up to explain the observed trends in terms of payback period and ROI of PV and BESS investments facing a middle-income California homeowner. NBT is found to provide strong incentives for pairing PV solar with storage that were absent from the NEM2 policy. Bidirectional EV charging is then introduced into the model by setting up and solving an optimization problem to simultaneously determine least-cost EV and BESS hourly dis/charging schedules. We find that under both NEM2 and NBT, an EV-owning homeowner with bidirectional charging infrastructure has lower annual electricity costs than a homeowner running PV solar without storage.
On a global scale, the United States is one of the largest producers of electronic waste (e-waste). This has negative implications for environmental quality and public health as e-waste contains toxins such as mercury and lead. There is an absence of federal legislation that manages e-waste, leaving recycling and disposal open-ended and up to the discretion of its owner, with the exception of some state regulations. Poor management of electronic waste therefore degrades various ecosystems and disrupts communities nearby disposal sites due to leakage. Given the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers, the amount of e-waste will only multiply in coming years. This brief summarizes electronic waste as a byproduct of data center expansion, identifies consequences of improper disposal, and highlights existing global and state legislation that aim to decrease e-waste.
Supply chains connect consumer activity in California (CA) to human rights violations and environmental destruction abroad. This brief summarizes weaknesses of U.S. supply chain regulations regarding human rights abuse and biodiversity loss, highlights stronger legislation from the European Union (EU), and presents recommendations for CA to adopt supply chain regulation in the absence of adequate federal management.
