Rhode Island § 39-26-5 - Renewable Energy Standard

§ 39-26-5. Renewable energy resources.

(a) Renewable energy resources are:

(1) Direct solar radiation;

(2) The wind;

(3) Movement or the latent heat of the ocean;

(4) The heat of the earth;

(5) Small hydro facilities;

(6) Biomass facilities using eligible biomass fuels and maintaining compliance with current air permits; eligible biomass fuels may be co-fired with fossil fuels, provided that only the renewable energy fraction of production from multi-fuel facilities shall be considered eligible;

(7) Fuel cells using the renewable resources referenced above in this section; and

(8) Waste-to-energy combustion of any sort or manner, including, without limitation, high-heat medical waste processing facilities, shall in no instance be considered eligible, except for fuels identified in § 39-26-2(6).

(b) For the purposes of the regulations promulgated under this chapter, eligible renewable energy resources are generation units in the NEPOOL control area using renewable energy resources as defined in this section.

(c) A generation unit located in an adjacent control area outside of the NEPOOL may qualify as an eligible renewable energy resource, but the associated generation attributes shall be applied to the renewable energy standard only to the extent that the energy produced by the generation unit is actually delivered into NEPOOL for consumption by New England customers. The delivery of the energy from the generation unit into NEPOOL must be generated by:

(1) A unit-specific bilateral contract for the sale and delivery of such energy into NEPOOL; and

(2) Confirmation from ISO-New England that the renewable energy was actually settled in the NEPOOL system; and

(3) Confirmation through the North American Reliability Council tagging system that the import of the energy into NEPOOL actually occurred; or

(4) Any such other requirements as the commission deems appropriate.

(d) NE-GIS certificates associated with energy production from off-grid generation and customer-sited generation facilities certified by the commission as eligible renewable energy resources may also be used to demonstrate compliance, provided that the facilities are physically located in Rhode Island.