{"id":1233,"date":"2011-12-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-04T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/a-renewable-energy-transparency-law-that-enabled-an-industry.html"},"modified":"2011-12-04T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-04T13:00:00","slug":"a-renewable-energy-transparency-law-that-enabled-an-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/a-renewable-energy-transparency-law-that-enabled-an-industry.html","title":{"rendered":"A renewable energy transparency law that enabled an industry"},"content":{"rendered":"North Carolina passed a law in 2007\ncalled the\n\nRenewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS)<\/a>,\nwhich requires power utilities to get certain percentages of their energy from\n“renewable energy resources or energy efficiency measures.”\nTo that NC added frequent, detailed, public reporting,\nand thus enabled a renewable energy industry.\n

\nPower utilities don’t like to reveal data about their energy sources or sales\nany more than Internet organizations like to reveal security problems.\nThe key to REPS is\n\nthe reporting it requires:<\/a>\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“Beginning in 2009, each power supplier is required to file a compliance\nreport, detailing the actions it has taken to fulfill the requirements\nof the REPS.”\n<\/blockquote>\nThis is called the\n\nRenewable Energy Certificate (REC) Tracking System.<\/a>\nIt provides the data to see which utilities are providing how much of\nwhich kind of energy.\n

\n\nAccording to Ivan Urlaub<\/a> of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy\nAssociation (NCSEA),\n\nREC reporting enabled the solar industry in North Carolina:<\/a>\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“The passage of the REPS law in 2007 and resulting success of the\nNorth Carolina’s clean energy market has created the rapid start-ups\nand expansions of clean energy businesses from installers to developers\nto manufacturers and the associated service sectors over the last few\nyears.”\n<\/blockquote>\nNot only is North Carolina now one of the national leaders in solar energy,\nbut\n\n91% of NC voters want more solar power,<\/a>\nwith wind second, and everything else far behind.\n

\nREC enabled not only a renewable energy industry, but also selection\nwithin that industry for what works.\n

\nHow did this happen?\n\n\n\n<\/a>\nThere was some demand, and there were technical\nsolutions available, but not widely used. The legislature didn’t just\ndecide spontaneously to pass REC: NCSEA and others lobbied for a reporting\nsystem and got it. NCSEA uses REC data to compile an annual book comparing\nwind, solar, biomass, nuclear, coal, natural gas, etc., in detail,\nthroughout the state. This let people who had only previously heard about\nsolar in places like Germany and New Jersey see how it was working in\ntheir own state and county. That enabled constituency building,\n\n<\/a>\nleading to the 91% favorable rating for solar energy, which makes\nsolar provision a strong reputational factor for utilities.\n

\nIn addition to renewable energy system architecting, transport, installation,\nand maintenance,\n56% of solar jobs in North Carolina are in R&D.\nREC data let NCSEA and others study the entire solar ecosystem.\n

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