What we do
Climate change poses grave risks to humanity and the planet, and consumption of fossil fuels is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. We quantify the impacts of climate change and inform strategies to reduce those impacts. We analyze how to use economic incentives to increase energy efficiency and substitute towards lower carbon and renewable fuels. Finally, we study the design and effects of policies to achieve sustainable mitigation of carbon emissions.
Knowledge Base Code: EE
Climate & Energy Mini-talks
Machine learning can increase the impact of energy efficiency programs - presented by Erica Myers (2021)
Economic and environmental costs and benefits of biofuels - presented by Madhu Khanna
Fracking: Myths and truths - presented by Yilan Xu
Collaboration | Sustainably Colocating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems
People: Madhu Khanna
Funding: United States Department of Agriculture
This project aims to optimize design for “agrivoltaic” systems — fields with both crops and solar panels — that will maintain crop production, produce renewable energy, and increase farm profitability. The $10 million, four-year project, funded through the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Sustainable Agriculture Systems program with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the lead institution, will study agrivoltaics in a variety of land types and climate scenarios (Illinois, Colorado, Arizona)
Research Output
| Title | Publication | Authors | Year Published | Category | Method | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifying the key atmospheric and economic drivers of global carbon monoxide emission transfers | Economic Systems Research | Sandy Dall’erba, Nicole Riemer, Yilan Xu, Ran Xu, Yu Yao | 2024 | EE | N/A | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Alternatives to Utility-Scale Solar on agricultural lands: Adoption potential and impacts of utility-scale and agrivoltaic solar on permanent and marginal cropland | Fahd Majeed, Madhu Khanna, Paul Mwebaze, James McCall, Katy Waechter, Mengqi Jia, Bin Peng, Ruiqing Miao, Guan Kaiyu, Jordan Macknick | 2024 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (WP) Working Paper | |
| Social learning about climate risks | Economic Inquiry | Yilan Xu, Sébastien Box-Couillard | 2024 | EE | N/A | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Designing Payments to Induce Low Carbon Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production in US Croplands | Fahd Majeed, Madhu Khanna, Ruiqing Miao | 2024 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (WP) Working Paper | |
| High Costs of GHG Abatement with Electrifying the Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet with Heterogeneous Preferences of Vehicle Consumers | Madhu Khanna, Jia Zhong, Kalai Ramea | 2024 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (WP) Working Paper | |
| The Case for Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies | Environments | Gal Hochman, Vijay Appasamy | 2024 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Advancing Agrivoltaics through a Systematic Design Framework: Guidelines for Integration and Informed Decision-Making | Nenad Miljkovic, Xuzhi Du, Alexandra Solecki, Vivek S Garimella, Mengqi Jia, Bin Peng, Paul Mwebaze, James McCall, Fahd Majeed, Alson Time, Jinwook Kim, Matthew Sturchio, Kaiyu Guan, Madhu Khanna, Carl J Bernacchi, DoKyoung Lee, Alan Knapp, Greg Barron-Gafford, Bruce Branham | 2024 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (WP) Working Paper | |
| Strategic innovation and technology adoption under technological uncertainty | Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control | Fanglin Ye, Nicholas Paulson, Madhu Khanna | 2024 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Spatially Varying Costs of GHG Abatement with Alternative Cellulosic Feedstocks for Sustainable Aviation Fuels | Environmental Science & Technology | Xinxin Fan, Madhu Khanna, Yuanyao Lee, Jeffrey Kent, Rui Shi, Jeremy S Guest, DoKyoung Lee | 2024 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Climate vs Energy Security: Quantifying the Trade-offs of BECCS Deployment and Overcoming Opportunity Costs on Set-Aside Land | Environmental Science & Technology | Madhu Khanna, Elena Blanc-Betes, Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Melannie D Hartman, Tara W Hudiburg, William J Parton, Evan H DeLucia | 2023 | EE | N/A | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Factors driving aggregate service sector energy intensities in Asia and Eastern Europe: A LMDI analysis | Energy Policy | Jianda Wanga, Kangyin Dong, Gal Hochman, & Govinda R. Timilsina | 2023 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Knowns, uncertainties, and challenges in agrivoltaics to sustainably intensify energy and food production | Cell Reports Physical Science | Madhu Khanna, Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Paul Mwebaze, Bruce Branham, Alson Time, Evan H DeLucia, Carl J Bernacchi, Alan K Knapp, Muhammad J Hoque, Xuzhi Du, Elena Blanc-Betes, Greg A Barron-Gafford, Bin Peng, Kaiyu Guan, Jordan Macknick, Ruiqing Miao, Nenad Miljkovic | 2023 | EE | N/A | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Land use effects of biofuel production in the US | Environmental Research Communications | Madhu Khanna, Weiwei Wang | 2023 | EE | N/A | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Maize farmers acquire early maturity seed across production environments | CGIAR | Hope Michelson, Pieter Rutsaert, Jason A Donovan, Hanna S Willwerth, Colleta Nabwile, John Muthee | 2023 | FA, EE | N/A | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Responsiveness of miscanthus and switchgrass yields to stand age and nitrogen fertilization: A meta-regression analysis | GCB-Energy | Bijay P. Sharma, B.P., Zhang, N., Lee, D., Heaton, E., Delucia, E.H., Sacks, E.J., Kantola, I.B., Boersma, N.N., Long, S.P., Voigt, T.B., & Khanna, M. | 2022 | FA, EE | (OM) Other | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| An agent-based modeling tool supporting bioenergy and bio-product community communication regarding cellulosic bioeconomy development | Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews | Yang, P., Cai, X., Hu, X., Zhao, Q., Lee, Y., Khanna, M... | 2022 | EE | (PD) Policy Design, (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Does unconventional energy extraction generate more wastewater? A lifetime perspective | Ecological Economics | Xu, M., Xu, Y., Khanna, M. | 2022 | LW, EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Are renewable energy policies effective to promote technological change? The role of induced technological risk | Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | Ye, F., Paulson, N., & Khanna, M. |
2022 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation, (PD) Policy Design | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| WTP for post-flood buyout commitment | Land Economcis | Ando, A.W., & Reeser, C. | 2022 | EE | (VA) Valuation | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Repeal of the clean power plan: Social cost and distributional implications | American Journal of Agricultural Economics | Khanna, M., Chen, X., Wang, W., & Oliver, A. | 2021 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Assessing the returns to land and greenhouse gas savings from producing energy crops on conservation reserve program land | Environmental Science & Technology | Chen, L., Blanc-Betes, E., Hudiburg, T.W., Hellerstein, D., Wallander, S., DeLucia, E.H., & Khanna, M. | 2021 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Reduced river discharge under climate change impairs electricity generation and the economic feasibility of future Amazon hydropower | Global Environmental Change | Rafael M. Almeida, Ayan S. Fleischmann, João P.F. Brêda, Diego S. Cardoso, Hector Angarita, Walter Collischonn, Bruce Forsberg, Roosevelt García-Villacorta, Stephen K. Hamilton, Phillip M. Hannam, Rodrigo Paiva, N. LeRoy Poff, Suresh A. Sethi, Qinru Shi, Carla P. Gomes, Alexander S. Flecker | 2021 | EE | (PD) Policy Design | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Lessons learned from US experience with biofuels: Comparing the hype with the evidence | Review of Environmental Economics and Policy | Khanna, M., Rajagopal, D., & Zilberman, D. | 2021 | EE | (OM) Other | |
| The demand for mobility: Evidence from an experiment with Uber riders | IZA Discussion Paper | Christensen, P., & Osman, A. | 2021 | EE, SC | (FE) Field Experiment | |
| Optimal environmental taxation in response to an environmentally-unfriendly political challenger | Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | Hochman, Gal & David Zilberman | 2021 | EE | (PD) Policy Design | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Economic viability and carbon footprint of switchgrass for cellulosic biofuels: Insights from a spatial multi‐feedstock procurement landscape analysis | GCB Bioenergy | Sesmero, J.P., Trull, N.U, & Gramig, B.M | 2021 | EE | (SM) System Modeling, (OM) Other | |
| Adoption of perennial energy crops in the US Midwest: Causal and heterogeneous determinants | Biomass and Bioenergy | Yang, P., Cai, X., Leibensperger, C., & Khanna, M. | 2021 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Redefining marginal land for bioenergy crop production | GCB Bioenergy | Khanna, K., Chen, L., Basso, B., Cai, X., Field, J.L., Guan, K., Jiang, C., Lark, T.J., Richard, T.L., Spawn‐Lee, S.A., Yang, P., & Zipp, K.Y. | 2021 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| The economic and environmental costs and benefits of the renewable fuel standard | Environmental Research Letters | Chen, L., Debnath, D., Zhong, J., Ferin, K., VanLoocke, A., & Khanna, M. | 2021 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Fraccidents: The impact of fracking on road traffic deaths | Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | Xu, M., & Xu, Y. | 2020 | EE, O | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Social comparison nudges without monetary incentives: Evidence from home energy reports | Journal of Environmental Economics and Management | Myers, E. & Souza, M. |
2020 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Assessing the additional carbon savings with biofuel | Bioenergy Research | Khanna, M., Wang, W. & Wang, M. | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Decomposing the wedge between projected and realized savings in energy efficiency programs | E2e Working Paper | Christensen, P., Francisco, P., Myers, E., & Souza, M. | 2020 | EE, SC | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| COVID‐19: A cloud with a silver lining for renewable energy? | Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy | Khanna, M. | 2020 | EE | (OM) Other | |
| Decomposing the wedge between projected and realized savings in energy efficiency programs | E2e Working Paper | Christensen, P., Francisco, P., Myers, E., & Souza, M. (2020). | 2020 | EE, SC | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Repeal of the Clean Power Plan: Social Cost And Distributional Implications | American Journal of Agricultural Economics | X. chen, W. Wang and A. Oliver | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Biofuels and Their Potential in South Korea | Sustainability | Hochman, Gal & Tabakis, Chrysostomos | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| The Potential Implications of the Introduction of Bioelectricity in South Korea | Sustainability | Hochman, Gal & Tabakis, Chrysostomos | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Housing discrimination and the toxics exposure gap in the United States: Evidence from the rental market | Review of Economics and Statistics | Christensen, P., Sarmiento-Barbieri, I., & Timmins, C. | 2020 | EE, SC | (OM) Other | |
| Non-Constant Elasticity of Substitution and Intermittent Renewable Energy | ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering | Aleti, S. & G. Hochman | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands | Nature | Beerling, D.J., Kantzas, E.P., Lomas, M.R., Wade, P., Eufrasio, R.M., Renforth, P., Sarkar, B., Andrews, M.G., James, R.H., Pearce, C.R., Mercure, J.F., Pollitt, H., Holden, P.B., Edwards, N.R., Khanna, M., Koh, L., Quegan, S., Pidgeon, N.F., Janssens, I.A., Hansen, J., & Banwart, S.A. | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Total cost of carbon capture and storage implemented at a regional scale: northeastern and midwestern United States | Interface Focus | William J. Schmelz, Gal Hochman, & Kenneth G. Miller | 2020 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | (PR) Peer Reviewed |
| Do unconventional oil and gas wells generate more wastewater? A lifespan perspective | SSRN Working Paper | Xu, M., Xu, Y., & Khanna, M. | 2020 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Are home buyers inattentive? Evidence from capitalization of energy costs | American Economic Journal: Economic Policy | Myers, E. |
2019 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Effect of wind turbines on bird abundance: A national scale analysis based on fixed effects models | Energy Policy | Miao, R., Ghosh, P. N., Khanna, M., Wang, W., & Rong, J. |
2019 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Multi-objective optimization for sustainable renewable jet fuel production: A case study of corn stover based supply chain system in Midwestern U.S. | Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews | Huang, E., Zhang, X., Rodriguez, L., Khanna, M., de jong, S., Ting, K.C., Ying, Y. |
2019 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Adopting energy crops: Does farmers' attitude toward loss matter? | Agricultural Economics | Anand, M., Miao, R. & Khanna, M. | 2019 | FA, EE | (PD) Policy Design, (SM) System Modeling | |
| Are consumers attentive to local energy costs? Evidence from the appliance market | National Bureau of Economic Research | Houde, S., & Myers, E. |
2019 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Harnessing advances in agricultural technologies to optimize resource utilization in the food-energy-water nexus | Annual Review of Resource Economics | Miao, R. and M. Khanna | 2019 | FA, EE | (OM) Other | |
| Effects of mandatory energy efficiency disclosure in housing markets | National Bureau of Economic Research | Myers, E., Puller, S. L., & West, J. D. |
2019 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Is wood pellet-based electricity less carbon-intensive than coal-based electricity? It depends on perspectives, baselines, feedstocks, and forest management practices | Environmental Research Letters | Dwivedi, P., M. Khanna and M. Fuller | 2019 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Effects of mandatory energy efficiency disclosure in housing markets | National Bureau of Economic Research | 2019 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | ||
| Heterogeneous (mis-) perceptions of energy costs: Implications for measurement and policy design | National Bureau of Economic Research | Houde, S., & Myers, E. |
2019 | EE | (PD) Policy Design, (VA) Valuation | |
| The distributional effects of building energy codes | Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists | Bruegge, C., Deryugina, T., & Myers, E. |
2019 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Effect of corn ethanol production on conservation reserve program acres in the US | Applied Energy | Chen, X., & Khanna, M. |
2018 | LW, EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Effects of ethanol plant proximity and crop prices on land-use change in the United States | American Journal of Agricultural Economics | Li, Y., Miao, R., & Khanna, M. |
2018 | FA, EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Multicriterion optimal electric drive vehicle selection based on lifecycle emission and lifecycle cost | Energy Economics | Ahmadi, P., Cai, X.M., & Khanna, M. |
2018 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Spatial distribution of welfare costs of renewable portfolio standards in the United States electricity sector | Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences | Oliver, A.C. , & Khanna, M. |
2018 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Asymmetric information is residential rental markets: Implications for the energy efficiency gap | E2e Working Paper | Myers, E. | 2018 | EE, SC | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Bioenergy economics and policy in US and Brazil: Effects on land use and greenhouse gas emissions | Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy (Volume II) | Khanna, M., & Zilberman, D. |
2017 | LW, EE | (OM) Other | |
| Costs of Meeting a Cellulosic biofuel mandate with perennial energy crops: Implications for policy | Energy Economics | Miao, R., & Khanna, M. |
2017 | FA, EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Demand for Biomass to meet renewable energy targets in the US: Implications for land use | Global Change Biology Bioenergy | Oliver, A.C., & Khanna, M. |
2017 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Effectiveness of the biomass crop assistance program: Roles of behavioral factors, credit constraint, and program design | Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy | Miao, R., & Khanna, M. |
2017 | FA, EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy | Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy (Volume II) | Khanna, M., & Zilberman, D. |
2017 | EE | (OM) Other | |
| Is forest bioenergy carbon neutral or worse than coal? Implications of carbon accounting methods | International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics | Khanna, M., Dwivedi, P., & Abt, R. |
2017 | EE | (OM) Other | |
| Motivations to grow energy crops: The role of crop and contract attributes | Agricultural Economics | Khanna, M., Louviere, J. J, & Yang, X. |
2017 | EE | (VA) Valuation | |
| Nexus between food, energy and ecosystem services in the Mississippi River basin: Policy implications and challenges | Choices | Khanna, M. |
2017 | FA, EE | (OM) Other | |
| The social inefficiency of regulating indirect land use change due to biofuels | Nature Communications | Khanna, M., Wang, W., Hudiburg, T., & DeLucia, E. |
2017 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Environmental hazards and mortgage credit risk: Evidence from Texas pipeline incidents | Real Estate Economics | Xu, M., & Xu, Y. | 2017 | EE, O | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| What is the cost of a renewable energy-based approach to greenhouse gas mitigation? | Land Economics | Oliver, A.C., & Khanna, M. |
2017 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Who pays and who gains from fuel policies in Brazil? | Energy Economics | Khanna, M., Nunez, H., & Zilberman, D. |
2016 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Efficacy of carbon and bioenergy markets in mitigating carbon emissions on reforested lands: A case study from southern United States | Forest Policy and Economics | Dwivedi, P., Khanna, M., Sharma, A., & Susaeta, A. |
2016 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Impacts of a 32 billion gallon bioenergy landscape on land and fossil fuel use in the US | Nature Energy | Hudiburg, T.W., Wang, W., Khanna, M., Long, S. P., Dwivedi, P., Parton, W. J., Hartmann, M., & DeLucia, E.H. |
2016 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Trade-facilitated technology spillovers in energy productivity convergence processes across EU countries | Energy Economics | Wan, J., Baylis, K., & Mulder, P. |
2015 | EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Carbon savings with transatlantic trade in pellets: Accounting for market-driven effects | Environmental Research Letters | Wang, W., Dwivedi, P. Abt, R., & Khanna, M. |
2015 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Cost of abating greenhouse gas emissions with cellulosic ethanol | Environmental Science and Technology | Dwividi, P., Wang, W., Hudiburg, T., Jaiswal, D., Parton, W., Long, S., DeLucia, E., & Khanna, M. |
2015 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Impacts of management practices on bioenergy feedstock yield and economic feasibility on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Grasslands | GCB Bioenergy | Anderson, E.K., Aberle, E., Chen, C., Egenolf, J., Harmonmey, K., Kakani, G., Kallenbach, R.L., Khanna, M., Wang, W., & Lee, D.K. |
2015 | LW, EE | (IE) Impact Evaluation | |
| Managing multiple mandates: A system of systems model to analyze strategies for producing cellulosic ethanol and reducing riverine nitrate loads in the upper Mississippi River basin | Environmental Science and Technology | Housh, M., Yaeger, M., Cai, X., McIsaac, G., Khanna, M., Sivapalan, M., Ouyang, Y., Al-Qadi, I., & Jain, A. | 2015 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Mix of first and second generation biofuels to meet multiple environmental objectives: Implications for policy at a watershed scale | Water Policy Economics | Housh, M., Khanna, M., & Cai, X. |
2015 | EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Renewable energy policies for eco-innovation | Managing Emerging Technologies for Socio-Economic Impact | Dombrovski, R. (eds) Assimakopoulos, D., Oshri, I., & Pandza, K. | 2015 | EE, SC | (PD) Policy Design | |
| Optimal mix of vertical integration and contracting for energy crops effect of risk preferences and land quality | Applied Economic Policy and Perspectives | Yang, X., Paulson, N. D., & Khanna, M. |
2015 | FA, EE | (SM) System Modeling | |
| Effectiveness of financial and fiscal instruments for promoting sustainable renewable energy technologies | Economic and Business Review | 2015 | EE, SC | (IE) Impact Evaluation, (PD) Policy Design |