Biennial Report to Congress on the Progress of the Federal Government in Meeting the Renewable Energy Goals of the Energy Policy Act of 2005

Technical Report · Mon Jun 28 04:00:00 EDT 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1217867· OSTI ID:1217867

As a whole the Federal government met its statutory goal to consume renewable electricity to meet not less than 3 percent of total facility electricity use. However, overall Federal renewable electricity use declined 32% from 2007 to 2008, dropping from 2.8 terawatthours (TWh) (4.9%) to 1.9 TWh (3.4%). Of the 22 agencies reporting, 13 increased renewable energy use, but 7 agencies reported significant declines that more than offset the increases, while deployment was stagnant in 2 others. Higher prices for renewable energy certificates (RECs) and reduced incentives to purchase renewable energy because of the phase out of old rules that allowed counting renewable energy purchases towards energy efficiency goals were major reasons cited for the decline. In addition, there was a steep reduction of 73% in self-generated or on-site renewable energy. Although self-generated renewable energy declined, some facilities demonstrated a new approach to developing projects by selling high-value RECs to help finance projects, and then used some of the savings to purchase lower-cost replacement RECs. This approach, exemplified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) Mesa Top PV project, reduces the cost of meeting the goal, and allows the project to count as on-site energy production. EPAct 2005 only allows agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD), to count renewable energy the agency consumes toward the EPAct goal and it only allows agencies to count electricity from renewable resources, not thermal energy. Under EPAct, ground-source heat pumps which provide thermal energy are not allowed. DoD has a separate statutory goal that counts production and consumption of both electricity and thermal energy from renewable sources, but DOD is also required to meet EPAct 2005 goals. The reduction in self-generated or on-site renewable energy is of particular concern. Given this trend, meeting the goal in 2009 may be difficult; increasing renewable energy use to 5 percent of facility electricity use in 2010 will be unlikely without a much greater effort. Agencies urgently need to increase attention to the renewable energy goal and take action to meet the goal. Removing barriers to these projects is also critically important.

• Research Organization: US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Federal Energy Management Program Office (EE-5F)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Federal Energy Management Program Office (EE-5F)
• OSTI ID: 1217867
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
FEMP
Federal Energy Management Program