The Wind Coalition Developing the Nations Wind Corridor

Renewable Portfolio Standard

Renewable Portfolio Standard: a Texas Success Story

Texas is a state known for its business-friendly climate, which includes a lighter regulatory touch and fewer restrictions on employers than many other states. The fact that Texas pioneered the way for renewable energy by requiring a minimum threshold of power generation from renewable resources - commonly called a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) - was therefore a surprise to many. But the fact is opportunity and responsibility converged such that forward-looking policy-makers from the Governor, to the Legislature, to local governments recognized the unique opportunity they had to grow the fledgling renewable energy industry to benefit not only the economy, but also the health and well-being of all Texas citizens

With the favorable business climate and the state's vast wind potential in the west, the Panhandle, and along the coast, Texas possessed the ideal ingredients for a 21^st Century wind rush. The only thing left to truly get the ball rolling was the incentive for wind energy investment created by an RPS

Established by Senate Bill 7 in 1999, the Texas RPS created a market-based system designed to build up to 2000 MW of new renewable energy capacity by 2009. A key component in the RPS is the use of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to validate compliance in meeting the renewable energy goal

RECs are issued when a wind farm or other renewable energy facility generates electricity. Each REC represents the positive environmental attributes of one megawatt-hour of renewable generation, including the emission-reduction benefits of displacing conventional fuels, such as coal, nuclear or natural gas

The RPS was just the sound policy the industry needed to encourage renewable development throughout the state, and Texas quickly surpassed its first RPS goal. An increased RPS was then passed in 2005, which Texas has surpassed several years ahead of schedule

Texas leads the nation in the amount of wind capacity added to the electric grid. Nearly $3 billion worth of wind-powered electric generators were installed in Texas during 2007, growing the state's total wind capacity by 59 percent over the previous year. In that year alone, Texas' 1,618 megawatts (MW) of new wind power installations were more than twice the capacity added in any other state during this record-shattering year for the U.S. wind industry

In 2006 and 2007, more wind capacity was added to the system than all other types of power plants combined (coal, gas, nuclear, etc.) Wind energy has brought investment and jobs to rural parts of the state, and has kept the state on the forefront of 21^st Century energy technology.