Green power purchases, state RES legislation to strain renewables supply--NREL

Oct 31, 2007 - Wind Energy Weekly

A recently released report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) highlights a potential supply and demand mismatch in renewable energy in the coming years as a result of renewable energy certificate (RECs) purchases, utility green pricing program options, and state renewable electricity standards (RES).

Such factors—25 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia now have RES laws on the books—are expected to result in increasing demand for renewable energy in the next few years. The report, which NREL released as the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference was in full swing (see related story), underscores the role that RECs play in increasing demand for renewable energy and ultimately getting more projects built. The NREL study projects a general shortfall of renewable energy in the near future, indicating a need for more wind in particular to come online, as that energy source is expected to continue to provide the lion's share of power to meet demand from both voluntary markets and compliance and RESs.

The full report is available at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/pdfs/42266.pdf