Time: 11:00AM – 12:30PM, Monday, April 15

Venue: IB 1011

Speaker: Fan Tong, Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Beihang University

Host: Yanran Yang, Assistant Professor of Sustainability Studies, Duke Kunshan University

Speaker’s bio: Fan Tong is an Associate Professor at the School of Economics and Management at Beihang University. His research interests are to assess the society-wide impacts of emerging energy technologies and energy systems and design transition paths to sustainable energy futures. Fan develops and uses systems-level analytical methods, such as life cycle analysis, techno-economic analysis, energy systems models, and integrated assessment models. Fan has published a dozen research articles in top-tier journals, such as Joule, ES&T, Applied Energy, iScience, ERL, etc. As the PI, he has received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the U.S. Department of Energy. He is a major contributor to research projects founded by the Department of Science and Technology in China and NSF, DOE, DOT, EPA, and CEC in the United States. Before his current position, he worked at the Energy Research Institute affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in China, Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs in the United States He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University in China and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Abstract: The electrification of long-haul truck electrification has attracted nascent policy support, but the potential impact on health and climate remains uncertain. Here, we developed an integrated assessment approach with high spatial and temporal resolution to characterize the causal chain from truck operations to charging loads, electric grid response, changes in emissions and atmospheric concentrations, and resulting impacts on health and climate in the United States. Our results show that deep decarbonization of the electric grid is essential to ensure the health and climate benefits of long-haul truck electrification. With an 80% renewable electricity grid, most regions would experience net health benefits, and the economic value of avoided climate and health damages exceeds $5 billion per year, an 80% reduction compared to future diesel trucks. Electric trucks with larger batteries could increase the health and climate impact from additional trips needed to offset the payload disadvantage, but a 2×improvement in battery specific energy (to ∼320 Wh/kg) could eliminate the additional trips. A follow-up study concludes that recent policy, namely the Inflation Reduction Act, would significantly accelerate the co-development of the electric grid and the electrification of freight transportation.