Since the Public Utility Regulatory Act was passed in 1978, power
utilities have been required to pay an “avoided cost” rate to certain
types of small power production, cogeneration facilities and other types
of qualifying facilities. That rate is typically the cost of the
cheapest type of energy the utility has in its portfolio—usually
coal—and that’s a price with which small renewable energy providers
cannot compete.
More than 20 years later, PURPA is doing something it was never
intended for—limiting individual states’ ability to make their own
decisions about incentivizing small distributed renewable energy. A new
bill introduced in the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee,
however, could change that.
PURPA Plus, which is intended to
encourage distributed generation of renewable energy, would remove the
avoided cost restriction and let states set their own prices, according
to Patrick Serfass, executive director of the American Biogas Council.
In many cases, PURPA makes small renewable energy generation unfeasible.
read more : http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5999/a-biogas-friendly-bill/
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