FIT Coalition Quick Updates: CARB RES

FIT Coalition Members:

The FIT Coalition is working to get smart clean energy policies enacted in California and beyond. We are geared back up for 2010 and here is our first “Quick Update” of the year. We will be sending these quick updates whenever the Coalition has been involved in notable FIT activity.

Quick Update #1: California Air Resources Board (CARB) February Workshop

FIT Coalition staff attended last Tuesday’s California Air Resources Board (CARB) workshop on the 33% Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).  For background on the RES, check out the official website.

The FIT Coalition believes that CARB has a great opportunity with the 33% RES to help fix some of the issues that have been preventing California from meeting its renewable energy goals.  Specifically, the RES should be designed to stimulate the Wholesale Distributed Generation (WDG) market and could enact a true, comprehensive FIT for California.

At the meeting, CARB officials reviewed their progress on the three main analyses they are undertaking to design the RES:  Technical Feasibility, Economic, and Environmental.  You can find a copy of their presentations or view the webcast  here .

Based on their presentations, the FIT Coalition has identified three areas which we will submitting additional comments to the regulatory agency.

• All analysis should consider different renewable energy resource mix scenarios.  Currently CARB is looking at three primary 2020 demand scenarios and assuming the CPUC Reference case resource mix to satisfy that demand.  That reference case assumes most of the renewable energy will come from large, central-station projects in remote areas. We are encouraging CARB staff to consider scenarios where most of the new energy will come from WDG.

• CARB should consider how their regulation can change the renewable energy resource mix decisions.   CARB has the authority to introduce new policies to help reach the 33% target.  We encourage CARB to consider introducing a FIT.  A FIT has the ability to be a game-changing policy that would proactively move California towards a resource mix that reduces costs, reduces risk, and maximizes benefits to the state.

• CARB should consider distinguishing where energy is generated as a factor in their analysis – close to urban centers / on the electrical grid verses in rural locations where new transmission lines need to go in. This important distinction has thus far not been mentioned in any of the workshops.

The FIT Coalition will post our full comment submissions to CARB on our website.

Thank you,

Ted Ko,  Associate Executive Director