Berkeley Lab Releases Report on State Markets

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Berkeley Lab, in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has released a report, Evaluating State Markets for Residential Wind Systems: Results from an Economic and Policy Analysis Tool.

The market for small, residential wind systems in the U.S. is small, but growing, with recent growth primarily spurred by aggressive state policy efforts. This new report, sponsored by the U.S. DOE’s Wind & Hydropower Technologies Program, evaluates the economics of these residential wind systems, by state, given current and possible future state and federal incentives.

The primary purpose of this work is to help policymakers at the state and federal levels assess the types of policies that might effectively encourage the growth of the market for small wind turbines (< 100 kW). In addition, this work should help small wind stakeholders identify the most promising state markets for small wind systems.

Among the key conclusions:
Small wind economics are highly variable across states.  The most economically attractive states are New York, California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Hawaii. State financial incentives help drive the small wind market.  The states where financial incentives make the largest different tend to be states where multiple incentives are available. New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and California currently offer the best incentive packages. Absent additional incentives, installed cost reductions are necessary.

The report can be found at: http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/56344.pdf, while the entire list of  Berkeley Lab renewable energy publications can be found at: http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/re-pubs.html.

Source: Berkeley Laboratory