In 2007, former Gov. Mike Easley enacted North Carolina’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which required the state’s investor-owned utilities to derive 12.5 percent of retail sales from renewable sources by 2021. The RPS requires municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives to meet 10 percent of their sales from renewables by 2018.
Qualifying sources include: solar; wind; hydropower of 10 megawatts (MW) or less; ocean current or wave energy; biomass; landfill gas; combined heat and power (CHP) using waste heat from renewables; and hydrogen derived from renewables. Energy efficiency technologies may be used to meet up to 25 percent of the mandate. After 2021 that allowance rises to 40 percent.
The RPS also includes a 0.2 percent carve out for solar and swine waste by 2018, and 900,000 megawatt hours from poultry waste by 2014.
The law sets a graduated schedule for compliance.
Utilities may buy and sell renewable energy credits (RECs) to meet the mandate. Utilities may use RECs purchased from qualified out-of-state sources to meet 25 percent of the mandate.
Utilities may recover up to $1 million a year from customers for renewable energy and alternative energy research. The law also sets a rising per-customer cost cap based on residential, industrial, and commercial type customers.Source: Database for State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency