Research by the Rapid Decarbonization Initiative

Peer-reviewed journal articles, working papers, and other publications apply Stanford’s interdisciplinary strengths in engineering, economics, business, and energy policy to increase global knowledge of low-carbon energy technologies.

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Journal Article

Cost Dynamics of Clean Energy Technologies

Gunther Glenk, Rebecca Meier, Stefan J. Reichelstein
Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research September2021 Vol. 73

The pace of the global decarbonization process is widely believed to hinge on the rate of cost improvements for clean energy technologies, in particular renewable power and energy storage. This paper adopts the classical learning-by-doing…

Journal Article

The Impact of Carbon Disclosure Mandates on Emissions and Financial Operating Performance

Benedikt Downar, Jürgen Ernstberger, Stefan J. Reichelstein, Sebastian Schwenen, Aleksandar Zaklan
Review of Accounting Studies August2021

We examine the impact of a disclosure mandate for greenhouse gas emissions on firms’ subsequent emission levels and financial operating performance. For UK-incorporated listed firms a carbon disclosure mandate was adopted in 2013. Our difference-…

Working Paper

Clean Energy Technologies: Dynamics of Cost and Price

Gunther Glenk, Rebecca Meier, Stefan J. Reichelstein
April2021

The rapid transition to a decarbonized energy economy is widely believed to hinge on the rate of cost improvements for certain clean energy technologies, in particular renewable power and energy storage. This paper adopts the classical learning-…

Journal Article

Transitioning to Clean Energy Transportation Services: Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Vehicle Fleets

Stephen D. Comello, Gunther Glenk, Stefan J. Reichelstein
Applied Energy March2021 Vol. 285

Comprehensive global decarbonization requires that transportation services cease to rely on fossil fuels for power generation. This paper develops a generic, time-driven life-cycle cost model for mobility services to address two closely related…

Working Paper

Life-Cycle Cost of Transportation Services

Stephen D. Comello, Gunther Glenk, Stefan J. Reichelstein
May2020

The rapid deployment of electric vehicles is widely viewed as a promising path towards decarbonizing the transportation sector. The pace at which electric vehicles will replace those with internal combustion engines will depend to a large…

Working Paper

The Impact of Carbon Disclosure Mandates on Emissions and Financial Operating Performance

Benedikt Downar, Jürgen Ernstberger, Stefan J. Reichelstein, Sebastian Schwenen, Aleksandar Zaklan
May2020

We examine whether a disclosure mandate for greenhouse gas emissions creates stakeholder pressure for firms to subsequently reduce their emissions. For UK-incorporated listed firms such a mandate was adopted in 2013. Using a difference-in-…

Journal Article

Synergistic Value in Vertically Integrated Power‐to‐Gas Energy Systems

Gunther Glenk, Stefan J. Reichelstein
Production and Operations Management October2019

In vertically integrated energy systems, integration frequently entails operational gains that must be traded off against the requisite cost of capacity investments. In the context of the model analyzed in this study, the operational gains are…

Journal Article

The Emergence of Cost Effective Battery Storage

Stefan J. Reichelstein, Stephen D. Comello
Nature Communications May2019 Vol. 10 Issue 1

Energy storage will be key to overcoming the intermittency and variability of renewable energy sources. Here, we propose a metric for the cost of energy storage and for identifying optimally sized storage systems. The levelized cost of energy…

Journal Article

Economics of Converting Renewable Power to Hydrogen

Stefan J. Reichelstein, Gunther Glenk
Nature Energy February2019 Vol. 4

The recent sharp decline in the cost of renewable energy suggests that the production of hydrogen from renewable power through a power-to-gas process might become more economical. Here we examine this alternative from the perspective of an…

Journal Article

The Road Ahead for Solar PV Power

Stephen D. Comello, Stefan J. Reichelstein, Anshuman Sahoo
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews September2018 Vol. 92

Over the past decade, solar photovoltaic (PV) power has experienced dramatic deployment growth coupled with substantial decreases in system prices. This article examines how solar PV power is currently positioned in the electricity marketplace…