A successful initiative should reduce state dependence on volatile supplies.
Brandon Owens is director of renewable power analysis at Platts Research & Consulting. Jack Ihle is senior associate at Platts Research & Consulting.
California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires retail sellers of electricity to increase the relative percentage share of all such sales represented by renewable electricity by an absolute increment of at least 1 percent of additional share per year, thus achieving a releative share of at least 20 percent of all power sales by 2017. This will be a formidable task, even in resource rich California, where renewable energy sales already account for 11 percent of all utility sales today. This requirement raises interesting questions: