Connecticut has proposed entering into a regional clean energy partnership with Massachusetts, Vermont, and other neighboring states to use their collective purchasing power to obtain renewable energy at competitive prices.
“We have waited too long for renewables to come to us,” said State Sen. Bob Duff (D-Norwalk), co-chair of the General Assembly’s Energy & Technology Committee. “We want this to be competitive, and we want prices to be reasonable.”
By partnering, the states hope to bargain down prices on the power from renewable installations and create enough critical mass where energy developers can look at pursuing larger renewable projects.
The state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, along with the co-chairs of the energy committee, proposed the partnership as part of an overhaul of the state’s renewable portfolio standard.
DEEP’s proposal says the current RPS doesn’t meet state goals, as 89 percent of Connecticut’s renewable electricity comes from geographically outside the state, and 87 percent comes from technological sources that are less than clean — namely biomass plants in Maine and New Hampshire and landfill gas in New York.
“We want to tighten those standards for those legacy projects that we really didn’t have in mind when we set up this renewable portfolio standard,” DEEP commissioner Dan Esty said.
The new RPS proposal would increase the requirements from 20 percent of the state’s electricity coming from renewable sources by 2020 to 25 percent by 2025. The proposal also will phase out those biomass and landfill gas plants to make more state incentives available for technologies such as solar, wind, and tidal power.
At the same time, the state would insert a new RPS category for low-cost technologies such as large-scale hydro that would help Connecticut meet its renewable goals, but they would not be eligible for renewable incentives. The proposal allows 7.5 percent of the 25 percent to come from this category by 2025.
“It is clear the deep-pocketed people have already bought their solar, but we want to expand this to everybody,” said State Rep. Lonnie Reed (D-Branford), energy committee co-chair.
Revamping the RPS will be controversial in this legislative session, especially since it involves a significant shift in how renewable technologies receive funding. Although a significant portion of the RPS will go toward a previously ineligible technology — large-scale hydro — Duff, Esty, and Reed are selling the change as making more incentive money available for all in-state renewable technologies at the expense of the out-of-state, less clean technologies.
“This package represents a big step forward for renewables,” Esty said.
