Archives: Rules

In September 2004, The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC)adopted a renewable energy portfolio standard that requires 25 percent of the state’s electricity to be supplied from renewable energy sources by 2013. The NY RPS will require about 3,700 megawatts (MW) of new renewable fueled electricity projects to come on-line between 2006 and 2013. The NY RPS also requires a portion of the renewables to come from customer-sited generation.… Read More

In early March 2004, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed into law a measure (SB 43) that requires investor-owned electric utilities to produce or buy increasing amounts of renewable energy. Renewables must make up 5 percent of the utilities’ sales by 2006, and 10 percent by the year 2011. The law leaves a tiny hole that would allow utilities to ignore the new law through a provision for a PRC-established"reasonable cost threshold" beyond which a utility would not be required to add renewable energy to its energy supply portfolio.… Read More

On June 8, 2001, Nevada enacted the country’s most aggressive renewable portfolio standard at the time. The law required that 15 percent of all electricity generated be derived from new renewables by the year 2013. Five percent of the RPS must be from solar energy projects. In June 2005, Nevada raised the requirements of the RPS to 20 percent of sales by 2015. The bill also allows certain energy efficiency measures to qualify for up to one-quarter of the total standard in any particular year.… Read More

In July 2005, the Texas Legislature doubled their previous goal for the amount of wind power, solar power and other forms of renewable energy in the state’s energy mix. The new portfolio standard calls for the state to obtain 5,880 MW, or about five percent of the state’s electricity, from renewable energy by 2015. Of the total, 500 MW must come from renewable energy sources other than wind energy.… Read More

InApril 2006, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) issued new regulations that as a whole requires 22.5 percent renewable energy by 2021. Most interesting is a requirement for photovoltaics to meet 2.12 percent of the state’s cosumption – representing about 1,500 MW by 2020.… Read More

On September 12, 2002, a bill was enacted (SB 1078) requiring California to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy no later than 2017. The law requires sellers of electricity at retail to increase their use of renewable energy by 1 percent per year. In 2005, state regulators expressed a desire to accelerate the timeline and meet the RPS by 2010. The Governor has endorsed this accelerated schedule and has set a goal of achieving a 33 percent RPS by 2020 for the state as a whole.… Read More

Iowa’s 1983 Alternate Energy Production law required the state’s investor-owned utilities to purchase of electricity from renewable energy projects. After years of stalling by the utilities, Iowa is now becoming a leading state for wind energy development.… Read More

The 2007 Minnesota legislature has adopted the strongest renewable energy standard (as of January 2009) that applies to all the state’s utilities – 25% renewables by 2025 (30% by 2020 for Xcel Energy) giving a total renewable requirement of about 27.5% of electricity sales by 2025.… Read More