These 4 companies are leading US renewable generation
This year's benchmarking report (Reg. req.) on utilities' clean energy generation from research firm Ceres – the third of its kind ever – analyzed the 2014 electric power generation sales of 30 of the largest U.S. investor-owned electric utilities, representing 119 subsidiaries in the U.S.
Four companies accounted for more than half of all renewable energy sales covered in the report: Sempra Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Edison International and Xcel Energy all reported that more than 20 percent of their total energy sales came from renewable resources. Combined, the four companies accounted for more than half of all renewable energy sales across the U.S.
The report ranked companies according to three indicators: Renewable energy sales, actual energy savings from company efficiency programs and estimated energy savings from all efficiency programs combined. The indicators were measured as a percentage of annual retail sales to compare utilities of different sizes as accurately as possible.ranked utilities and put in perspective how companies are exceeding, meeting and falling short on clean energy goals.
Sempra Energy, owner of Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas & Electric, ranked highest for renewable energy sales with nearly 36 percent renewable energy sales.
PG&E was the only company to rank in the top five spots for all three indicators. PG&E ranked second for its percentage of renewable energy sales, at 25.9 percent of total sales, and second for its incremental energy efficiency with savings of 1.79 percent of total retail electric sales. The company ranked third for its life cycle energy efficiency with savings of nearly 18 percent.
Net metering is one of the fastest-changing, most controversial topics in the industry. All but four states took action in 2015 to modify solar energy policy in some way, which could allow more customers to be paid for the electricity that their solar or other distributed energy resources (DERs) produce. Twenty-seven states considered or approved changes to net metering policies, and 61 utilities in 30 states requested increases in monthly fixed charges for residential customers.
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The report also noted that state policies are an important factor contributing to the renewable energy output of the top ranked companies.
"Top-performing utilities on renewable energy and energy efficiency are located almost entirely in states with more ambitious clean energy policy goals such as California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Oregon, while utilities with poor results are typically in states with weak policies, many of them being in the Southeast," the report stated.
For more:
- see the
Ceres report (Reg. req.)
- read
GreenTechMedia's reporting
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