Emissions modeling reveals three-pillar clean electricity standards yield incremental emissions of 69% to 100% of baseline levels, suggesting true zero-carbon grid demand remains difficult.
Many businesses would like to claim their electricity use results in no greenhouse gases. Because electricity cannot be traced from specific generators to purchasers, regulators and users propose an approximation. Clean electricity use would meet three conditions, or “pillars.” It must be generated (1) nearby, (2) during the same hour, and (3) by newly constructed plants. Qualifying electricity use would be cleaner than average but not carbon‐free, with average incremental emissions ranging from 69% to 100% of unrestricted emissions. The conditions limit the amount of already‐existing power that can be claimed, and so could encourage construction of clean capacity.
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Werner et al. (2026) studied this question.
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