Today, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs released a Decarbonization Roadmap for the Commonwealth that is one of the most detailed and considered state decarbonization plans to date. A link to the study materials can be found here.
The study materials are divided into six technical reports and a separate synthesis report that draws together the underlying technical material.
Evolved Energy Research authored one of the six technical reports called "Energy Pathways to Deep Decarbonization." This report outlines eight different energy system pathways for the Northeast. The EnergyPATHWAYS (EP) and RIO models were run for each of ten zones: six New England / ISO-NE states plus four neighboring regions (New York, Quebec, New Brunswick, and rest of the U.S.).
This is the first study to examine energy and industrial emissions targets consistent with net-zero GHGs by 2050 for the region. It is also the first to represent the transition from 2020 to 2050, including intermediate years, using optimal capacity expansion modeling methods, as well as the first to represent transmission within New England in a study of long-term regional coordination. The technical report findings are summarized at the beginning of the document and supported with detailed chapters describing each component of the energy system transition for the region.