Renewable Portfolio Standards

This fact sheet was created by NRG Energy, a New Jersey based electric generator company, and eSolar, a California based solar thermal power technology company. It provides information on a joint venture by the companies in New Mexico.

Utility company Florida Power & Light (FPL) has just started a solar rebate programme on 21 June. FPL supports both PV and solar thermal plants run by private home owners, as well as companies. The programme is part of a five-year pilot programme the Florida Public Service Commission authorised to promote solar power and reduce energy consumption. The funds for PV were exhausted within minutes. For solar thermal, there was still a lot of subsidy money remaining as of 16 July: USD 3 million for private customers and USD 447,000 for business customers. According to FPL, up to USD 15.5 million per year are planned to be spent on the solar rebate programmes. Once funding for the current year is exhausted, the programme will be halted; customers can apply again the following year.
Source: Pixelio/Carl-Ernst Stahnke

More and more state governments in the USA approve Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) with a certain share of solar energy. An RPS requires utilities to retrieve a certain percentage from renewable sources every year. For example, in the District of Columbo (D.C.), utilities will have to get 20 % of their energy from renewable sources, with 0.4 % of that from solar. The map shows all states with an RPS policy including solar or Distributed Generation (DG).
Figure: dsireusa.org

The first financing measure in the framework of New York's Solar Thermal Roadmap is about to be implemented: Very soon, solar thermal technology will be the next technology to profit from the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), which were introduced in the State of New York in 2005. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is responsible for administering the RPS funds, which are collected via the electricity bills of individual clients – residential and commercial ones – in the service areas of investor-owned utilities. A total of USD 25.8 million was allocated to subsidise solar thermal installations replacing electric water heaters. Combi systems are also eligible for the incentive scheme if the rooms in question were previously heated with electricity.

A study was conducted by the United States Department of Energy and The National Renewable Energy Laboratory to analyze the cost and performance of solar thermal electricity. Study proved that high development of solar thermal electricity plants would allow for costs to decrease for solar thermal by 2020.

It is projected that prices will rise for natural gas generated electricity from 7.894 cents per kilowatt hour to 8.098 cents per kilowatt hour.

Les Nelson – re-elected chair of the solar thermal division at SEIA
Photo: privat