October 3, 2007—Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich recently signed a law, Public Act 095-0481 (.pdf file), that requires the state’s electric utilities to draw on renewable energy for 25% of their electricity needs by 2025, according to a report from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
The renewable energy requirement starts at 2% of the power supply on June 1, 2008, and increases to 10% of the power supply on June 1, 2015, then increases by 1.5% per year until 2025. The law requires 75% of the renewable power to come from wind energy. Other than wind power, the law also allows solar energy, biomass energy, hydropower that does not involve new construction or significant expansion of dams, and “other alternative sources of environmentally preferable energy.”
The renewable energy requirement applies to electric utilities that serve at least 100,000 customers within the state. It allows those utilities to meet the requirements with renewable energy credits and gives preference first to projects within the state, then to projects in adjacent states, then to projects located elsewhere. The law also places limits on the cost impacts of the renewable requirement, allowing utilities to fall short of the requirement if the cost impact is too great.
The renewable energy requirement is part of a larger law that establishes the Illinois Power Agency, which has broad powers to develop electricity procurement plans; conduct competitive procurements; build electric power or cogeneration plants that use renewable energy, coal, or both, financed with bonds issued by the Illinois Finance Authority; and supply electricity at cost to municipal electric systems, governmental aggregators, and rural electric cooperatives.
With those powers, the new agency will help large utilities plan their renewable power procurements while building some of the renewable power facilities needed to meet the requirement.
