Green 2.0: renewables can promote economic recovery, increase energy security and protect the environment.

• Author: Andersen, Glen

Shiny silicon-covered rooftops generate electricity. Crops share fields with towering wind turbines. Technology taps the Earth's heat to release a constant, reliable source of clean electricity.

Although these scenarios already exist, state renewable energy efforts will soon bring them to far more people.

Propelled by a desire for energy security, economic development and environmental protection, states are taking steps to increase the production of renewable energy. To ensure measurable increases, 29 state legislatures have adopted production targets, called renewable portfolio standards. Three other states created voluntary goals. With half of the electricity supply in the country now under these requirements, the electric industry is the process of significantly transforming the way energy is created and delivered.

State policies call for about 70 gigawatts of power--enough for 56 million homes--to come from renewable sources, according to Ryan Wiser, a scientist in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"We are talking about the need for major changes in how we plan and operate the electricity system," he says.

The discussion focuses on how realistic state goals are, what effect a dramatic energy transformation will have on the economy, and how larger amounts of renewable electricity will affect rates and reliability.

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MOVING TARGETS

With U.S. energy consumption expected to grow 23 percent by 2030, states are seeking to add sustainable, clean and cost-effective energy sources to their portfolios. States are requiring utilities to produce a specified percentage of their energy from renewable sources, ranging from a relatively modest 12 percent in states such as North Carolina and Wisconsin to as high as 27 percent by 2020 or 2025 in states such as Connecticut, Illinois and Minnesota.

The nation today receives about 7 percent of its energy from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydropower. Most comes from hydropower and the burning of biomass--wood chips and agricultural waste--although that is likely to change as most of the new requirements don't count large hydropower projects or renewable energy sources built before the standards went into effect.

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In several states, lawmakers revised the standards upward to create more economic development and innovation. In Colorado, lawmakers recently doubled the standard after seeing the ease with which the lower one was met.

"The standards created an economy based on renewable energy, creating demand for workers to build and maintain wind farms in areas that have suffered from a shrinking tax base," says Representative Jack Pommer of Colorado. "Some rural areas are now growing from the economic influx."

The majority of states are still taking their first steps toward meeting what some believe are very ambitious goals.

"Initially we had pushback, with people saying the standard was unattainable and would hurt our competition with surrounding states," says New Jersey Assemblyman Douglas Fisher. "But the energy crisis changed a lot of minds, with people feeling we must reduce foreign energy imports. The standard is good for the environment, creates jobs and increases self-sufficiency."

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Senator Patty Birkholz, who introduced one of the first bills in the Michigan Legislature to...