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.