Jesse Jenkins

Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator

Jesse D. Jenkins is an assistant professor and macro-scale energy systems engineer at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment.

He leads the Princeton ZERO Lab (Zero-carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization Laboratory), which focuses on improving and applying optimization-based energy systems models to evaluate and optimize low-carbon energy technologies, guide investment and research in innovative energy technologies, and generate insights to improve energy and climate policy and planning decisions.

Dr. Jenkins earned a PhD in Engineering Systems and SM in Technology & Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked previously as a postdoctoral environmental fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, and spent six years as an energy and climate policy analyst prior to embarking on his academic career. Dr. Jenkins served on the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine expert committee on Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System, was a principal investigator and lead author of Princeton’s landmark Net-Zero America study, and leads the REPEAT Project, which provides regular, timely, and independent environmental and economic evaluation of federal energy and climate policies as they’re proposed and enacted.

Dr. Jenkins has delivered invited testimony to multiple Congressional committees and his research is frequently featured in major media outlets. His work guiding, shaping and evaluating American efforts to transition to clean energy was profiled in the Wall Street Journal, recognized with inclusion on the 2024 TIME100 NEXT list of the next 100 leaders shaping the future, Vox.com’s 2023 Future Perfect 50 list of thinkers, activists, and scholars working on solutions to today’s (and tomorrow’s) biggest problems, and Environmental News Record’s 2022 Top 25 Newsmakers list.

He regularly provides technical analysis and policy advice for non-profit organizations, policy makers, investors, and early-stage technology ventures working to accelerate the deployment of clean energy. Dr. Jenkins currently serves on the advisory boards of Eavor Technologies, Rondo Energy and Dig Energy and is a scientific and technical advisor to Energy Impact Partners and MUUS Climate Partners. He is also the co-host of the podcast Shift Key on the energy transition and the shift away from fossil fuels, published by Heatmap News.

Publications

US EPA’s power plant rules reduce CO2 emissions but can achieve more cost-efficient and deeper reduction by regulating existing gas-fired plants

One Earth, 2025

Jesse Jenkins, Qian Luo

10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101230

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Targeting one of the largest CO2-emitting sectors, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized new regulations on power plant emissions in 2024. However, the regulations are complex, with multiple mitigation options for compliance, making it difficult to understand their consequential effects on total CO2 emissions. We evaluate these effects by enhancing a capacity expansion model via incorporating new detailed operational constraints tailored to different technologies based on the EPA’s new rules. We show that the new rules could nearly double power sector CO2 emissions reductions through 2040, bringing emissions to about 51% below the 2022 level at low average cost per ton avoided, driven primarily by coal retirements. However, the rules omit regulations on existing natural gas generators, encouraging greater use of inefficient older gas plants. We find that emissions could be cost-effectively driven to 81%–88% below 2022 levels if the EPA’s rules were applied equally to all gas generators, regardless of vintage.

Reducing transmission expansion by co-optimizing sizing of wind, solar, storage and grid connection capacity

Environmental Research: Energy, 2025

Aneesha Manocha, Gabriel Mantegna, Jesse Jenkins, Neha Patankar

10.1088/2753-3751/adafab

Expanding transmission capacity is likely a bottleneck that will restrict variable renewable energy (VRE) deployment required to achieve ambitious emission reduction goals. Interconnection and inter-zonal transmission buildout may be displaced by the optimal sizing of VRE to grid connection capacity and by the co-location of VRE and battery resources behind interconnection. However, neither of these capabilities is commonly captured in macro-energy system models. We develop two new functionalities to explore the substitutability of storage for transmission and the optimal capacity and siting decisions of renewable energy and battery resources through 2030 in the Western Interconnection of the United States. Our findings indicate that modeling optimized interconnection and storage co-location better captures the full value of energy storage and its ability to substitute for transmission. Optimizing interconnection capacity and co-location can reduce total grid connection and shorter-distance transmission capacity expansion on the order of 10% at storage penetration equivalent to 2.5%–10% of peak system demand. The decline in interconnection capacity corresponds with greater ratios of VRE to grid connection capacity (an average of 1.5–1.6 megawatt (MW) PV:1 MW inverter capacity, 1.2–1.3 MW wind:1 MW interconnection). Co-locating storage with VREs also results in a 9%–13% increase in wind capacity, as wind sites tend to require longer and more costly interconnection. Finally, co-located storage exhibits higher value than standalone storage in our model setup (up to ∼43%–45%). Given the coarse representation of transmission networks in our modeling, this outcome likely overstates the real-world importance of storage co-location with VREs. However, it highlights how siting storage in grid-constrained locations can maximize the value of storage and reduce transmission expansion.

24/7 carbon-free electricity matching accelerates adoption of advanced clean energy technologies

Joule, 2025

Jesse Jenkins

10.1016/j.joule.2024.101808

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Early markets for advanced clean energy technologies can spur substantial technological learning, leading to cost reductions and unlocking greenhouse gas savings far beyond the reduction of emissions directly associated with initial investments. Similarly to the feed-in tariffs and renewable portfolio standards that created a demand pull for wind and solar PV in the past, commitments to 24/7 CFE matching and other advanced market commitments by private sector stakeholders can accelerate the development of FOAK and early commercial projects of innovative energy technologies. A proactive private sector contribution can complement governmental support and reduce pressure on tight fiscal budgets. The virtuous system dynamics we describe can be activated by a handful of companies and governments committed to timely action, thereby fostering rapid innovation and making climate solutions more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Impacts of EPA’s finalized power plant greenhouse gas standards

Science, 2025

Jesse Jenkins, Qian Luo

10.1126/science.adt5665

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The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidizes the deployment of clean electricity, hydrogen production, and carbon capture and storage (CCS), which could enable additional actions by other federal, state, and local policy-makers to reduce emissions. Power plant rules finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2024 are one such example of complementary policies. The rules establish emissions intensity standards, not technology mandates, meaning power plant owners can choose from a range of technologies and control options provided that emissions standards are met. This flexibility makes electricity systems modeling important to understand the potential effects of these regulations. We report below a multimodel analysis of the EPA power plant rules that can provide timely information, including for other countries and states, on emissions impacts, policy design for electricity decarbonization, power sector investments and retirements, cost impacts, and load growth. We also discuss related technical, political, and legal uncertainties.

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