Renewable Portfolio Standards

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are laws or regulations that set a specific target for the percentage of electricity that must be generated from renewable energy sources for public utilities and other eligible entities. They are also known as “Renewable Electricity Standards” or RES. These standards are put in place to ensure that renewable and clean energy sources become a larger part of the overall energy supply. The goal of most RPS is to diversify the energy mix, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, and to support the advancement of renewable technologies. RPS are set on the state and regional level, so they vary between states, but in general they both incentivize the use of renewable energy and create requirements on utilities to ensure they have a certain percentage of their electricity mix as renewable energy.