R.I. set to up renewable energy usage target

WITH A BILL BEFORE GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO for her approval, Rhode Island is looking to increase the percentage of energy it uses from renewable sources by 2035. Seen here are people looking out at the Deepwater Wind offshore wind farm under construction off the coast of Block Island in July 2015. / BLOOMBER NEWS FILE PHOTO/SHIHO FUKADA
WITH A BILL BEFORE GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO for her approval, Rhode Island is looking to increase the percentage of energy it uses from renewable sources by 2035. Seen here are people looking out at the Deepwater Wind offshore wind farm under construction off the coast of Block Island in July 2015. / BLOOMBER NEWS FILE PHOTO/SHIHO FUKADA

PROVIDENCE – Despite lagging growth, a new law awaiting gubernatorial approval would extend the state’s renewable energy target to 38.5 percent by 2035.

Pending Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s signature, the state’s “renewable energy standard,” a regulation that requires utility companies to buy a certain amount of energy from such renewable sources as wind and solar, would extend from its current target of 14.5 percent by 2019 to 38.5 percent by 2035. The extension, which came as part of the R.I. Senate push to grow renewable-energy jobs in Rhode Island, is receiving praise from the industry.

“With a turn of the governor’s pen, Rhode Island can join a leading cohort of states raising their renewable energy targets in order to keep the air clean and cut costs,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group of the United States wind energy industry. “States with the best policies are going to attract the most business. By raising its renewable energy standard, Rhode Island is sending the signal that it’s open for business to renewable energy developers who will invest billions of dollars into the state economy.”

Deepwater Wind LLC, a renewable energy company focused specifically on offshore wind, is scheduled to bring the first operational offshore wind farm online later this year with its five-turbine, 30-megawatt project three miles off the coast of Block Island. The project last year secured more than $290 million in debt and equity financing for the project.
Growing wind energy in the state could result in $240 million in electricity bill savings by 2050 and up to $744 million in savings through lower gas prices, according to a report by the Wind Energy Foundation.

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But if Rhode Island is going to achieve the lofty goal of 38.5 percent renewables by 2035, it’s going to need to pick up the pace. In 2007, the state set a target of 3 percent, which was scheduled to increase 1.5 percentage points each year until reaching 19.5 percent in 2020. It became clear, however, that the state would fall short of this goal and the R.I. Public Utility Commission reduced that target to 14.5 percent by 2019.
Assuming the state reaches the 14.5 percent goal by 2019, it would then need to increase its sourcing of renewable energy on average by 1.5 percentage points each year to achieve the 38.5 percent by 2035. With a nod to these figures, the R.I. House of Representatives amended the Senate legislation to provide the PUC more flexibility to delay the planned increase in the RES should there be an inadequate supply of renewable energy. Deepwater Wind could go a long way toward proving the offshore wind model in the United States, but more renewable energy sources will need to come online should the state achieve the new target.

With Raimondo’s approval, the state would join four other states in raising its existing renewable energy target to “reduce carbon emissions and cut costs by diversifying their electricity mix,” according to AWEA.

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