Co-benefits of mercury reduction in Taiwan: a case study of clean energy development

This work applies the co-benefits model considering the benefits of mercury reductions to quantify the social benefits of clean energy development involving natural gas (NG) and renewable energy (RE). The AERMOD was used to simulate mercury deposition attributed to local anthropogenic sources. Modeling results indicate that local anthropogenic sources account for 23 % of mercury deposition. This figure was then applied to determine the reduction in methylmercury concentration in fish tissue and the consequent reduction in dietary exposure for residents. Health costs, including excess mortality and intelligence quotient (IQ) loss, were US$1.87 million per kg of mercury emitted, while health costs were only US$0.32 million when mortality cost was excluded. Damage costs per MWh for coal-fired, NG, and RE generation were approximately US$114, US$16 and US$1, respectively. Thus, the social benefits of replacing coal-burning plants with NG and RE were US$98/MWh and US$113/MWh, respectively. In additional to allowing for the application of the damage costs per MWh for coal-fired, NG and RE generation to assess scenarios with different proportions of energies, these analytical results can help countries to achieve a global agreement on restrictions for GHG and mercury emissions.