Big News for Renewable Energy: FERC Rules for Wind, Solar, Storage
Big News for Renewable Energy: FERC Rules for Wind, Solar, Storage
Like a Jedi responding to changing events by striving to bring balance to the Force, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under Chairman Jon Wellinghoff has been rapidly reshaping the formerly sclerotic electricity sector to make it responsive to new technologies.
Some of the sectors fossil fuel-centric rules left a high barrier to entry for so-called variable resources: energy like wind and solar that are only created when the wind blows or the sun shines, unlike, say, a gas or nuclear power plant that generates electricity around the clock.
A year ago, Wellinghoff told me: [North American Electric Reliability Corporation] projects in its 2010 Long-Term Reliability Assessment that approximately 60 percent of all new resources expected to be added to the bulk power system by 2019 will be new wind and solar resources."
The FERC aims to remove regulatory barriers to ensure that all of these resources can get access the grid and play a competitive role in the energy markets.
To that end, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission passed ...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericagies/2012/06/29/ferc-moves-to-ease-wind-solar-energy-storage-onto-the-grid/?ss=strategies-solutions