U.S. Renewables Portfolio Standards 2016 annual report published by LBNL

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has released their annual report describing the status of U.S. renewable portfolio standards.

The U.S. unlike Europe has state-wide targets that can be implemented on a voluntary or compliance basis. These renewable portfolio standards (RPS) also differ from European target counting in the fact that is largely based on in-state consumption not in-state production as is the case in Europe. This small change in how targets are counted allows the U.S. to have significantly higher RPS goals (for example 50% RES by 2030 in California) at much lower prices than in Europe. LBNL estimates that the total RPS compliance costs totaled 2.6 billion USD in 2014 averaging $12/MWh-RE or 1.3% of average retail electricity bills.

For more information on the LBNL report follow the link here.