Renewables By Mandate | Green Energy News

December 15, 2002 – Vol.7 No.38

RENEWABLES BY MANDATE.

One type of government action that would be necessary to convert the nation to renewables would be in Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS): utility companies being told that a portion of the electricity they sell must come from green sources. Thirteen states already have similarly named mandates.

The latest to finalize a statewide RPS is New Mexico. The state’s Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) has approved the final version of a measure by which utilities must generate 5 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2006, 10 percent by 2011. The ruling includes a credit system by which renewable energy suppliers can sell credits to utility companies that chose not build renewable capacity. The finalized ruling gives geothermal plants two kilowatt hours in credits for every kilowatt hour generated. Solar power generation is given three kilowatt hours in credits for every kilowatt hour generated. Wind is on a one-to-one ratio.

The ruling is to go into effect in July of next year.

In neighboring Nevada, because of the state’s RPS, Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power have contracted with Duke Solar for 50-megawatts of solar-generated electricity. Upon contract approval by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN), Duke Solar will build a solar power plant in Eldorado Valley near Boulder City.

Duke Solar specializes in solar thermal technologies to generate electricity. The company has a contract with Arizona Public Service, to build a one-megawatt solar generating system using its parabolic trough solar collectors. The Nevada system would likely be the same, though larger.

Upon completion of the project, Nevada will become the second largest producer of solar energy in the country. Nevada’s RPS mandates that 15 percent of total electricity sales by utilities be renewables by 2013, with 5 percent coming from solar. Visit Duke Solar at http://www.dukesolar.com/ and Sierra Pacific Resources (for Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power) at http://www.sierrapacificresources.com/