Rhode Island gives renewable energy a boost: new laws open doors for developers of all sizes.

AuthorElmer, Jerry
PositionPROGRESS REPORT

BACKGROUND

In 2009, in an effort to encourage renewable energy development in Rhode Island, CLF staff attorney, Jerry Elmer, wrote a precedent-setting law called the Long Term Contracting Statute (LTC Statute). The law required all Rhode Island utilities to obtain fully 24% of the state's electricity from long-term contracts from new renewable energy sources.

THE PROBLEM

The LTC Statute worked well for developers of large renewable energy projects, but not for those who wanted to build small distributed generation (DG) projects, like a homeowner who wanted to put solar panels on her roof, or a town that wanted to put up a single wind turbine at its high school. The process was too cumbersome and complicated.

CLF IN ACTION

Working with a number of stakeholders, CLF drafted a suite of three new laws to make it easier for smaller developers to launch renewable energy projects in Rhode Island. The centerpiece of the new laws, a Distributed Generation Statute, provides a simple, short, standard contract - and a standard, uniform price - for developers of small renewable projects. A second law, governing net metering, allows small projects to get funded by selling power back to the utility. A third law sets a standard timetable and standard fees for connecting small renewable projects to the electricity grid.

PROGRESS!

The three new laws all passed the Rhode Island General Assembly in the spring of 2011 - two of them unanimously - and Governor Chafee held a ceremonial bill signing over the summer. The ceremony was conducted at the site of a long-stalled wind project at a low-income housing facility that will soon be up and running as a direct result of the new laws. Thanks to CLF's involvement, Rhode Island now has one of the most extensive and coherent sets of renewable energy laws in the nation.

NEXT STEPS

The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC] has just begun opening cases filed under the state's new renewable energy laws and developer interest is high. CLF attorneys plan to participate in each case to offer their unique insight to the PUC on proper...

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