Renewable Portfolio Standards Responsible For Over 50% Of US Renewable Electricity Growth
State renewable portfolio standards are responsible for over half of all renewable electricity growth in the US since 2000.
This is the primary conclusion from a new report published earlier this month by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which also concluded that total renewable portfolio standards (RPS) demand over the next 15 years is only going to increase, requiring significant growth from the US power sector.
The report, US Renewables Portfolio Standards: 2016 Annual Status Report, presented in slide format here (PDF), revealed that RPS policies currently apply to 55% of all US retail electricity supplies. Additionally, 60% of all growth in renewable electricity generation, and 57% of capacity increase since 2000, can be associated with state RPS requirements.
Looking forward, however, RPS demand is going to require a lot of work.
Total RPS demand will double from 215 TWh in 2015 to 431 TWh in 2030, requiring non-hydro renewable electricity generation to reach 12.1% of retail sales to keep pace. In the end, total RPS demand could require an additional 60 GW of renewable electricity capacity by 2030 to meet this goal, which is approximately a 50% increase from current non-hydro levels of renewable energy capacity, which sits at 114 GW.
“This document is intended as a progress report to help policy-makers and other electricity industry participants understand the past and future role of state RPS programs—recognizing that they are but one of a number of key drivers affecting renewable energy development in the United States,” said Berkeley Lab’s Galen Barbose, the report’s author.
RPS requirements have mostly been met, with states collectively meeting 95% of their interim RPS targets over the last few years. Specifically, the report highlighted “significant recent policy revisions” in locations such as California, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and New York. In total, nearly 150 RPS-related bills have been introduced throughout the US since the beginning of 2015.
Publicity surrounding renewable portfolio standards has risen dramatically over the past 14 months, thanks in part to their obvious success. A new report published earlier this year found that the economic benefits of state renewable portfolio standards significantly outweigh the costs. The report concluded that the economic benefits of these standards in terms of their impact on greenhouse gas emissions averaged $2.2 billion, with the economic benefits accompanying the reduction of other air pollution averaging $5.2 billion in 2013.
In March, a new report from GTM Research, found that more than half of all new US utility-scale solar installations in 2016 will be built above obligations set in state renewable portfolio standards. Specifically, GTM predicts more than 6 GW of non-RPS utility-scale solar will come online in 2016 — well above the 4.1 GW installed for the entire sector during 2015, which itself was a record-breaking year.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
