Energy Analysis
Renewable Portfolio Standards: Understanding Costs and Benefits

Renewable Portfolio Standards: Understanding Costs and Benefits

State policymakers, public utilities commissions, and the renewable industry rely on NREL's analysis of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to understand costs, benefits, and impacts of current and potential standards or changes to standards.

NREL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory undertook a multiyear project to examine the costs, benefits, and other impacts of state RPS polices both retrospectively and prospectively.

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An image displaying costs, benefits, and impacts of existing renewable portfolio standards.

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Understanding the Costs, Benefits, and Impacts of U.S. Portfolio Standards

Relying on a well-vetted set of methods, the study evaluates the costs, benefits, and other impacts of renewable energy used to meet future RPS demand growth over the 2015-2050 period. The study considers both the current set of state RPS policies, as well as a high renewable energy scenario in which most states adopt relatively aggressive targets. Those two scenarios are compared to a No RPS scenario, which assumes no further growth in RPS requirements beyond 2015. When comparing the costs and monetized benefits, we find that the benefits exceed the costs, even when considering the highest cost and lowest benefit outcomes.

More Information: Fact Sheet

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Understanding of the Benefits and Impacts of RPS Programs

More information: Press Release | Fact Sheet

Image of a report cover for A Survey of State-Level Cost and Benefit Estimates of Renewable Portfolio Standards.

State-Level Cost Estimates of RPS Programs

Based on an analysis of data from state compliance filings and other sources, a joint NREL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report finds that the estimated incremental RPS cost over a period from 2010–2012—the cost above and beyond what would have been incurred absent the RPS—was less than 1% of retail electricity rates on average.

More information: Full Report | Presentation