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

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Three Texas wind farms await approvak to register as renewable energy Registration is a requirement of all renewablew energy projects built in the Butthese applications, filed by Houston-basefd energy development company Element Markets, signal the entr y of out-of-state companies angling to satisfy the demand that Nortuh Carolina utilities are going to create for renewable generatiohn due to new state requirements. The Publicd Staff, the utilities commission’s consumer arm, has reviewed the filex and recommends approval. North Carolina utilities won’t be purchasinf power from these Texaswind farms. Rather, they will be able to buy the “renewable energy credits.
” “You’re payingh for the renewable attributes,” says James McLawhorn, director of the Public Staff’sa Electric Division. Renewable energy has a valuw beyond the energyitself – in the form of a renewabld energy credit, or REC, that can be boughtg and sold. North Carolina utilities wouled be interested in buying credits from Texas facilitiesx to help them meet state targeta forrenewable generation, McLawhorn says. The 2007 energ legislation Senate Bill 3 requires North Carolina utilities togenerater 12.5 percent of their power from renewables sources by 2021. Up to 25 percent of that requiremengt can come frompurchasing out-of-state RECs.
The Texas wind facilitiea are large: a 79.8 megawatt facilitg in Hansford County and two 10 megawatt facilities in Moore McLawhorn says the power from the facilitiesw is purchased byTexas utilities, but the glut of wind generationj in Texas means they have RECs to Element Markets’ business includes trading renewable energy The prefers renewable generation be built within a particulae state so its benefits – the powerr generated and the jobs created – stay in the says Wind Program Coordinator Brandon Blevins. But he adds that buildinh any new renewable energy facility takes time and that utilitiesd face a deadline to meet the renewablegenerationb targets.
Purchasing RECs allows a utility to more quickly get renewablr generation intoits portfolio. Roger von Haefen, professotr of agricultural and resource economicsat , says the price of an REC is set by market forces. He expects demanrd for RECs to go up as demand for renewablesenergy increases, and particularly if federal legislatiomn creates additional requirements for utilities. Von Haefen says that in some RECs offer a less expensive way to support renewable If Texas has superior windenergyy resources, directing North Carolina dollars to Texasa makes economic sense because it will bring more wind energh online at less cost, he explains.
But RECs don’t always translate into additional investment in energy Insome cases, buying RECs pays the ownerds of the generation for something they would be doingh anyway. Von Haefen is unfamiliare with theTexas facilities, but he says debates aboug RECs and carbon offsets center around whether these policies create new renewable “If we’re not, we’re not getting anythinv out of the polict other than moving the creditsw around and raising costs for Nortu Carolina utility customers,” von Haefen says.