With the electricity challenges facing California, the renewable energy industry is doing its part to help create new generating capacity to meet California's electricity demand. By May 2005, more than 1,300 megawatts (installed capacity) funded through the New Renewable Resources Account from 81 projects went on line.
Electricity deregulation legislation, namely Assembly Bill 1890 in 1996 and Senate Bill 90 in 1997, created the New Renewable Resources Account. The legislation directed that $161 million should be spent to support prospective new renewable electricity generation projects built in California after September 26, 1996. The program funds are collected from ratepayers of the state's investor-owned utility companies. Auction #1 under the New Renewable Resources Account was roughly 30 percent of the $540 million collected for all public goods renewable energy support.
The original funding was augmented in the fall of 2000 with an additional $40 million for a second auction. A third auction, released in the summer of 2001, provided another $40 million, for a total of $241 million for the three auctions. The table below summarizes the resource types funded in the three auctions.
Please also see the Renewable Portfolio Standards.
Resource Types & Installed Capacity
Funded in Auctions 1, 2 & 3
| Resource Type | Auction #1 June 1998 Capacity (megawatts) |
Auction #2 November 2000 Capacity (megawatts) |
Auction #3 September 2001 Capacity (megawatts) |
Total All Auctions Capacity (megawatts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biomass | 11.60 | 7.50 | - | 19.10 |
| Digester Gas | 2.05 | - | - | 2.05 |
| Geothermal | 156.90 | - | - | 156.90 |
| Landfill Gas | 70.125 | 12.54 | - | 82.665 |
| Small Hydro | 1.00 | 12.24 | 21.00 | 34.24 |
| Waste Tire | - | - | 30.00 | 30.00 |
| Wind | 290.83 | 439.05 | 249.20 | 979.08 |
| Total Installed Capacity |
532.505 | 471.33 | 300.20 | 1,304.035 |
Funding is allocated through the auction bidding process where bids were ranked in order of lowest incentive request to highest. Beginning with the lowest request, bids were accepted as winners until funds were depleted or all bids were accepted.
The third auction for new renewable resources was conducted in June 2001. The auction resulted in conditional funding awards for nine projects and more than 300 megawatts of new renewable capacity. Results of that auction were announced September 26, 2001.
Detailed Lists of Previous Auctions and the Winning Projects
- Auction #1 Results - Commission News Release (July 1998)
- Auction #2 Results (December 2000, Acrobat PDF file, 2 pages, 132 kilobytes)
- Auction #3 Results - Notice of Auction 6-01-3 (September 2001)
For assistance regarding the New Renewables Account, please contact:
Garry O'neill
New Renewable Resources Account
Phone: 916-654-0961
E-mail: GOneill@energy.state.ca.us