The Public Service Board has lifted the so-called “technology caps” applicable to the SPEED Standard Offer program in an Order dated June 3, 2011. The technology caps limited any renewable technology sector — solar, wind, biomass, farm methane, landfill gas, and hydro — projects from filling more than 25% of the project queue for the 50 MW ceiling created under the SPEED statute (see section 8005(b)(2)).
The technology caps have been in place since the Board’s Order of September 30, 2009 and resulted in the need to create waiting lists for technologies that were oversubscribed (total projects exceeded 12.5 MW (25%)). Many of the resource categories remained undersubscribed, including biomass, farm methane, landfill gas, and hydro.
In reaching its decision to lift the caps, the Board first reviewed the existing status of the standard offer program. At present, 44 projects totaling 36 MW of capacity have executed standard offer contracts, or roughly 72% of the 50 MW ceiling. But only 15 of the 44 projects have been constructed and are operating, as follows:
- four solar projects (3.26 MW total),
- nine farm methane (3.09 MW total),
- one landfill methane (0.56 MW), and
- one hydro (0.68 MW).
The total capacity of the 15 operating projects is 7.59 MW, representing 15% of the 50 MW ceiling. It was thus apparent to the Board that the program was falling short of maximizing the amount of renewable energy that was being brought on-line.
The Board observed that the purpose of the technology caps was to balance the competing goals of technological diversity and rapid deployment. However, “[g]iven that the technology caps have been in place since September 30, 2009, and there are projects in each technology category, it appears that the goal of rapid deployment should now take precedence over technological diversity.”
In order to preserve an opportunity for resource diversity, and to recognize that different technologies require different project-development times, the Board directed the SPEED Facilitator to admit projects on an alternating basis from the solar and wind waiting lists, beginning with solar. If the program is not yet fully subscribed to the 50 MW ceiling by January 2012 and there are no projects on waiting lists, the Board may notify potentially eligible existing hydroelectric plants of the availability of a standard-offer contract.
With the technology caps lifted, several solar projects have moved from the waiting list to the queue, resulting in 6.2 MW in newly executed contracts. Additional projects should be able to move on to the queue before the 50 MW ceiling is reached.
