Texas wind-power firms file to sell energy credits to N.C. utilities - Triangle Business Journal:

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Three Texas wind farms awaiy approval to register as renewabl eenergy facilities. Registration is a requirement of all renewabld energy projects built in the Butthese applications, filed by Houston-based energy development company Element signal the entry of out-of-state companiew angling to satisfy the demanr that North Carolina utilities are goinh to create for renewable generation due to new statr requirements. The Public Staff, the utilities commission’s consumer arm, has reviewed the files and recommends North Carolinautilities won’t be purchasing power from these Texaes wind farms. Rather, they will be able to buy the “renewable energy credits.
” “You’re paying for the renewables attributes,” says James McLawhorn, director of the Publicx Staff’s Electric Division. Renewable energyt has a value beyond the energyitselr – in the form of a renewable energyu credit, or REC, that can be bought and North Carolina utilities would be interested in buyiny credits from Texas facilitiess to help them meet state targetse for renewable generation, McLawhorn says. The 2007 energy legislation Senat e Bill 3 requires North Carolina utilities togenerate 12.5 percentf of their power from renewable sources by 2021. Up to 25 percengt of that requirement can come frompurchasinvg out-of-state RECs.
The Texas wind facilitiesz are large: a 79.8 megawatt facility in Hansforde County and two 10 megawattt facilities inMoore County. McLawhornm says the power from the facilities is purchasec byTexas utilities, but the glut of wind generation in Texasa means they have RECs to Element Markets’ business includes trading renewable energy The prefers renewable generation be built within a particular state so its benefits – the power generated and the jobs createde – stay in the state, says Wind Prograk Coordinator Brandon Blevins. But he adds that buildinv any new renewable energy facilit y takes time and that utilities face a deadline to meet the renewabl egeneration targets.
Purchasing RECs allows a utilityu to more quickly get renewable generation into its Rogervon Haefen, professor of agricultural and resource economicss at , says the price of an REC is set by markey forces. He expects demand for RECs to go up as demands for renewableenergy increases, and particularlhy if federal legislation creates additional requirementsa for utilities. Von Haefeb says that in some RECs offer a less expensive way to supportrenewablw generation. If Texas has superior wind energy resources, directing North Carolina dollarsw to Texas makes economic sense because it will brinbg more wind energy online at less he explains.
But RECs don’t always translats into additional investment inenergy generation. In some cases, buyinhg RECs pays the owners of the generation for somethingg they would bedoing anyway. Von Haefehn is unfamiliar with theTexas facilities, but he says debatese about RECs and carbon offsets center around whethe r these policies create new renewable “If we’re not, we’re not gettingh anything out of the policy other than movinv the credits around and raising cost for North Carolina utility von Haefen says.