100% Clean Energy State Implementation Collaborative

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a national laboratory owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL is the only federal laboratory dedicated to research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. NREL is managed and operated for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy (Alliance), the “M&O Contractor”.

As of May 2024, 30 states, Washington, D.C., and two territories have active renewable or clean energy requirements such as mandatory 100% Clean Energy Standards (CES), and other 100% planning goals or related policies. In addition to those, there are other states with Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) policies ramping up over the next 10-15 years, while some states have not formalized clean energy standard targets.

In most cases, these elevated CES and RPS targets have been enacted within the past several years, and the states are deliberating over common issues–for example, resource eligibility, procurement, siting, costs, equity, and compliance processes, among others. This project, the 100% Clean Energy State Implementation Collaborative, “project”, will shall help to facilitate information sharing and advance the state of knowledge among state agencies overseeing or considering these programs.

At the same time, the recent passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have created new opportunities to leverage federal policy for state goals, and vice-versa.

The project shall convene state agencies for an annual summit every spring for the next 5 years, building on the success of the inaugural first two summits (2023 and 2024) in which NREL, DOE Office of Policy (OP), and other partners conducted policy support work highlighting the implications of BIL and IRA for clean energy and climate mandates and metrics in support of state decision makers.

In the next annual summits, (2025, 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029), clean electricity policy shall be examined for each state, to determine the implications of various federal and/or state policies including BIL and IRA, on achieving state goals and opportunities to maximize their collective impact, and provide programming specific to state agencies that have not yet developed CES targets.

In support of the broadened audience and scope each year, the project may partner with additional agencies yet to be identified to leverage capabilities and networks to increase attendance and impact.