Diversified
Renewable Energy Base Emerging in the US Northeast
Renewable energy initiatives and investments in the northeastern
US are producing results and paying dividends economically, socially and
environmentally, according to a report from ACORE, the American Council on Renewable Energy.
Northeast region state governments have been at the leading edge
of the drive to craft and implement policies to foster development and use of a
distributed, diversified mix of renewable energy resources.
With supportive
policies in place in nearly every state in the 12-state region, the Northeast
ranks second in the US for both solar and biomass power capacity. This
progressive policy framework, which includes establishment of the pioneering Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), is driving renewable energy
deployment and driving down costs to the point where they are competitive with
fossil fuel power, ACORE’s “Renewable Energy in the 50
States: Northeastern Region,” the third in a four-part series of
reports on renewable energy conditions and prospects nationwide.
As the ACORE report authors highlight:
“Renewable energy is steadily becoming more cost competitive in
the Northeast. Three large utilities in Massachusetts recently signed long-term
contracts to purchase renewable energy at less than $0.08 per kilowatt hour,
below the cost of most conventional sources. If the contracts are approved by
state regulators, they would save customers between $0.75 and $1.00 a month.5
Likewise, if it doubles the amount of wind power it plans to build, the PJM
Interconnection could actually reduce wholesale energy market prices and save
nearly $7 million per year in the mid-2020s.”
Heavily dependent on imported energy and affected by retirements
of fossil fuel power plants, Northeastern states have good reason to develop
and deploy local renewable energy sources, ACORE notes in its latest regional
report. Supportive state and local policy initiatives are proving instrumental
in helping residents, businesses and the public sector realize the economic,
social and environmental benefits that renewable energy resource development,
along with greater energy conservation and energy efficiency, offer.
Eleven of the 12 states profiled in the report have instituted
renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that mandate power utilities increase their
use of renewable energy resources. Vermont, the 12th, has instituted a standard
contract program along the lines of a renewable energy feed-in tariff (FiT),
the first of its kind in the US, ACORE highlights in its report.
Established to
spur clean energy and energy efficiency investments across the region and
reduce the regional greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change,
RGGI, is also helping fund New York’s $1 billion Green Bank, the report authors
note.
With less in the way of large, utility-scale wind and solar
farms, the US Northeast ranks lower overall than other regions profiled in ACORE’s
“Renewable Energy in the 50 States” series. It’s comparatively strong when it
comes to local, distributed renewable power capacity, as well as the diversity
of renewable energy resources available, however.
“An array of policies and incentive programs, including feed-in
tariffs, renewable energy credits (RECs), green banks, and rebates, support the
development of renewable power, heat, and fuels in the Northeast.
“Many Northeastern states have set targets for solar energy
generation, which, coupled with financial incentives, are largely responsible
for driving more solar power capacity in the Northeast than in the Midwest or
the Southeast. In fact, ISO New England, the regional transmission organization
serving six Northeastern states, anticipates distributed generation
installations within its territory to increase from 250 MW in 2012 to 2 GW by
the end of 2021, with generation forecast to be mostly solar power.”
Moreover, most of the states in the region are working to
produce clean energy from waste and biomass by making use of municipal
solid waste, wood waste and landfill gas. They’re also looking to produce more
and make greater use of biodiesel and ethanol to reduce reliance on petroleum,
an area where they have lagged other regions.
“To reduce reliance on expensive heating oil, some states, such
as New Hampshire, have set goals for renewable thermal energy use. With the
availability of wood waste from the forestry sector, homes in New England use
wood for space heating, water heating, and cooking at nearly twice the national
rate, and growth in this sector is expected to continue.”
Large-scale hydropower has and will continue to play a large
role in the Northeast region’s energy mix. Meanwhile, recent developments
suggest that offshore wind power could play a significant role in fueling
renewable energy growth.
“Coastal states in the region have identified immense offshore
wind power potential, and developers are in the advanced stages of planning
what would be the first offshore wind projects in the country. In August 2013,
the U.S. Department of the Interior held the nation’s first offshore wind lease
sale off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, the scale of which could
support enough turbines to power one million homes.”
Main and featured image credit: All Earth Renewables