Full Title: Enacting a Federal High-Penetration Renewable Energy Standard
Author(s): Bill Parsons, Lesley Hunter, Tyler Stoff, and Tim Cronin
Publisher(s): American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Publication Date: October 16, 2019
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The new white paper, Enacting a Federal High-Penetration Renewable Energy Standard: Building on Proposals to Date and Addressing Important Additional Considerations makes the case for a federal high-penetration RES that embraces the following key features:
Qualifying technologies should, at a minimum, include wind, solar, hydropower, ocean, tidal, hydrokinetic, and geothermal energy.
The required percentage of compliant electricity should be at least 50%, on a timeline consistent with climate commitments, recommendations from scientific experts, and other policy goals.
Alternative Compliance Payments (ACPs) and penalties should be sufficient to achieve RES objectives.
A federal high-penetration RES should build upon, and not preempt, successful state renewable energy standards.
The new report also addresses important additional issues for consideration when designing a comprehensive federal high-penetration RES, including:
Grid reliability and resilience
Stranded asset costs
The need for expanded transmission and energy storage technologies
The importance of a socioeconomically fair transition
Complementary policies, like carbon pricing and a technology-neutral tax credit.