Renewable Standards for Wisconsin
Wisconsin's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) was signed into law in March 2006 as Act 141. It requires retail electric providers in Wisconsin to increase their renewable energy portfolios by 6% by the end of 2015 (measured as a percentage of their average retail sales compared to the baseline years 2001 through 2003).
The standard is generally referred to as a "10% RPS" because the goal of Act 141 is to produce 10% of Wisconsin's energy from renewable resources by 2015. Depending upon a retail energy providers' starting percentage of renewable resources, the renewable requirement may be more or less than 10% of the retail provider's sales by 2015. For WPS, the starting percentage was very close to 4%, making this a 10% RPS for WPS when considering the addition of 6% renewable energy by 2015.
WPS is currently exceeding the requirements of Act 141. We're using both our own and purchased renewable power resources for our renewable portfolio. We use of a variety of technologies, including:
- Hydroelectric
- Wind
- Wood-derived biomass
- Anaerobic digester gas using dairy cow manure
- Landfill gas
- Solar electric
WPS will continue building its diversified renewable portfolio, including small-scale, distributed, customer-owned renewable resources as well as larger, utility-scale projects to meet the requirements of Act 141 into the future.