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Estimating Economic & Employment Impacts of Energy Technology Investments


Highlights

  • DOE wanted to estimate the effects of energy technology investments
  • Abt built an input-output calculator to help DOE estimate impacts
  • The web-based tool is available to analysts at other agencies
The Challenge

The Department of Energy (DOE) and state and local governments are pouring significant sums into energy technology. They have multiple goals: reduce emissions, improve efficiency, and diversify energy sources. Unsurprisingly, DOE wants a way to estimate the economic and employment effects of these investments. 

The Approach

Abt built an input-output (I-O) calculator to help DOE make those estimates. The calculator contains a framework for converting a schedule of energy-related investments and subsequent operating, maintenance, and market effects into consistent direct economic effects. The calculator feeds the effects through an import-adjusted I-O framework to estimate total domestic economic effects on economic activity, employment, and earnings.

The Results

Abt built the framework in a web environment so that analysts from DOE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other organizations can use a rigorous and consistent analytic system to perform economic impact analyses.