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Enacting a Federal High-Penetration Renewable Energy Standard

Enacting a Federal High-Penetration Renewable Energy Standard

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.

All statements and/or propositions in discussion prompts are meant exclusively to stimulate discussion and do not represent the views of OurEnergyPolicy.org, its Partners, Topic Directors or Experts, nor of any individual or organization. Comments by and opinions of Expert participants are their own.

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