Wind and solar energy reduce combustion-based electricity generation and provide air-quality and greenhouse gas emission benefits. These benefits vary dramatically by region and over time. From 2007 to 2015, solar and wind power deployment increased rapidly while regulatory changes and fossil fuel price changes led to steep cuts in overall power-sector emissions. Here we evaluate how wind and solar climate and air-quality benefits evolved during this time period. We find cumulative wind and solar air-quality benefits of 2015 US$29.7–112.8 billion mostly from 3,000 to 12,700 avoided premature mortalities, and cumulative climate benefits of 2015 US$5.3–106.8 billion. The ranges span results across a suite of air-quality and health impact models and social cost of carbon estimates. We find that binding cap-and-trade pollutant markets may reduce these cumulative benefits by up to 16%. In 2015, based on central estimates, combined marginal benefits equal 7.3 ¢ kWh⁻¹ (wind) and 4.0 ¢ kWh⁻¹ (solar).

风能和太阳能减少了基于燃烧的发电，并提供了空气质量和温室气体排放效益。这些好处随地区和时间的不同而有很大差异。从2007年到2015年，太阳能和风能的部署迅速增长，而监管变化和化石燃料价格变化导致电力行业总体排放量急剧下降。在这里，我们评估了这段时间中风和太阳能的气候以及空气质量的益处如何演变。我们发现，2015年累积的风能和太阳能空气质量收益为297-1128亿美元，其中避免过早死亡的人数为3000至12700，而2015年的累积气候效益为53-1068亿美元。范围涵盖一系列空气质量和健康影响模型以及碳估计的社会成本的结果。我们发现具有约束力的总量控制和交易污染物市场可能会使这些累积收益减少多达16％。根据中央估计，2015年联合边际效益为7.3¢kWh^-1（风）和4.0¢kWh ^-1（太阳能）。