Just after the 2008 presidential election, a
national mandate for utilities to obtain a fixed
percentage of their electricity from renewable
energy seemed almost inevitable.
After all, pro-renewables Democrats controlled
Washington, more than two dozen states had a mandate
and clean energy development was starting to be seen
as a way out of the economic slide that had just
gained steam, with no end in sight.
Quite a bit has changed in three years. National
mandates are rarely discussed, the movement to add
to the list of states has trickled to a crawl, and
many proponents of the policy have been forced to
defend existing requirements, or fend off rollbacks
or repeals. Even the green jobs movement has lost
some appeal with recent bankruptcies in the clean
energy sector.
Today, 29 states and Washington have renewable
portfolio standards and another five states have
non-binding goals. The standard creates local
demand, which has led to manufacturing and support
companies setting up shop in the industrial
heartland.
Just in those renewable standards states, the market
could exceed 115 gigawatts of generation by 2025,
some observers note. The Union of Concerned
Scientists estimates a renewable energy standard of
30 percent by 2030 would lead to 63,000 megawatts of
non-hydro capacity development in the Midwest, up
from the current 13,000 megawatts.
California is one of the few places where the
standard has been increased in the past year, with
the legislature adopting the standard of 33 percent
of electricity from renewable sources by 2020. It
failed to reach a previous interim benchmark of 20
percent by 2010, now pushed back to 2013, but the
utilities are getting closer, with most rates in the
high teens.
Most states are on schedule to meet the requirements
of low, single-digit percentages that existed in
2011.
Wind Powerhouse
But in places like wind-rich Iowa -- which is ahead
of schedule and is far and away the national leader,
by percentage, in the amount of clean energy it
produces -- wind supplied more than 15 percent of
electricity generation in 2010 and industry and
state officials say the total is 20 percent this
year.
The state is now a wind powerhouse, trailing only
Texas in installed capacity. It surpassed the former
leader, California, a few years ago and now has
3,675 megawatts, with another 619 megawatts under
construction, according to the American Wind Energy
Association.
Iowa appears to be the laboratory model that
renewable energy proponents say the country should
adopt for the emerging green economy: policy support
that encouraged a remaking of the electricity
marketplace, which, in turn, attracted a domestic
manufacturing base to serve the new energy economy.
The state had a head start -- though by modern
standards, a rather modest one -- that was probably
revolutionary for the time. Iowa had the first
renewable portfolio standard in the United States, a
mere 2 percent, but the date is significant because
it was all the way back in 1983.
A high-profile result of late is the 700
manufacturing jobs at the TPI Composites wind blade
plant in Newton, Iowa, which was formerly the
headquarters for Maytag before those jobs moved
overseas.
Now, Iowa claims over 200 wind-related businesses
currently operate in 55 Iowa counties and add $5
billion to the Iowa economy.
Colorado, meanwhile, first passed a requirement by
ballot initiative in 2004, but legislators have
twice increased the percentage. That led to Danish
turbine maker Vestas to locate three plants there
that employ about 2,000 and supply its North
American customer base.
"The supply chain in the United States is such a
success story over the last six or seven years due
to the growth of the wind industry. So much more is
now being manufactured here, along with the services
around wind development and maintenance," said Susan
Williams Sloan, director of state relations for the
AWEA, who says total employment tied to wind energy
is 85,000.
Due to the nature of their technologies,
larger-scale investments occur in wind
manufacturing, while solar development tends to be
labor-intensive. Small rooftop installations, with
small companies blossoming to fill the void, rule
the day.
Opponents of mandates from New England to the
Southwest have made numerous attempts to scale back
the requirements. Outright assaults have failed.
Still, proponents of renewables failed yet again to
get a mandate passed in Indiana, having to be
content with a voluntary goal of 10 percent by 2025.
Generally speaking, the green jobs push is what is
saving the effort so far. It’s been tough the last
few years and that’s something that won’t likely
change much.
Copyright © 1996-2011 by
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