Download Wisconsin’s renewable electricity PDF
Renewable Mandate Status: Not on track
Eligible Resources: tidal and wave action, fuel cells using renewable fuels, solar thermal electric and photovoltaics (PV), wind power, geothermal, hydropower less than 60 megawatts, and biomass (including landfill gas),solar, geothermal, biomass and biogas resources.[iii]
Renewable portfolio history: Wisconsin Legislature passed Act 9 in 1999, becoming the first state to put in place a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) without having restructured its electric-utility industry.[iv] 1999 Wisconsin Act 9 created RPS and was designed to sell a certain minimum amount of renewable electricity as a percentage of total electricity a utility or cooperative sells. The RPS established by Act 9 would reach its maximum at 2.2% (of total electricity a cooperative or utility sells) in 2011.[v] The 2005 Wisconsin Act 141 builds upon the 1999 Act and set the standard of 10% state wide USE of electricity being from renewable sources.[vi] In 2010, Wisconsin legislature broadened the definition of renewable energy to include energy-from-waste projects as eligible for renewable energy credits[vii]
Credit Trading: Yes with limits
Noncompliance penalty: The law has no penalty for noncompliance. However, anyone who provides “false or misleading certification information regarding the sources or amounts of renewable energy supplied at wholesale to the electric provider shall forfeit not less than $5,000 nor more than $500,000.”[viii]
Electricity Price Ranking: 19th Highest[ix]
- 9.49 cents/KWh in Wisconsin
- 7.67 cents/KWh in non-mandated states
[i] Energy Information Administration, Electricity Generation 2009, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/generation_state_mon.xls.
[ii] Wisconsin State Legislature (March 17, 2006); S.B. 459 Sec. 1. http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/acts/05Act141.pdf
[iii] Database of state Incentives for Renewable Electricity, Wisconsin; http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=WI05R&re=1&ee=1
[iv] Database of state Incentives for Renewable Electricity, Wisconsin; http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=WI05R&re=1&ee=1
[v] Wisconsin state Legislature (October 27, 1999); Chapter 196.374-196.378; http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&vid=WI:Default&d=stats&jd=ch.%20196
[vi] Washington state Legislature (March 17, 2006); S.B. 459 Sec. 1. http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/acts/05Act141.pdf
[vii] James Cartledge, Brighter Energy, (May 20, 2010); http://www.brighterenergy.org/10682/news/wind/wisconsin-broadens-its-definition-of-renewable-energy
[viii] Wis. Stat. 196.378(5), Renewable Portfolio Standard, http://www.wiseye.org/uploads/Renewable%20Portfolio%20Standard.pdf.
[ix] EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B., Average Retail Price of Electricity, June 2010, Released Sept. 15, 2010, http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_b.html
