Senate Advances Renewable Energy Bill

It would make Vermont the first state in the country to set up a renewable energy "standard offer" — a price its utilities would be required to pay for power sent to the grid by small-scale generators. Those could include wind- and solar-power installations, projects that generate power by gases collected from landfills or farm manure, geothermal systems and others.

The bill calls for wind-power developers to get 20 cents per kilowatt-hour for the power they send to the grid; solar-power developers would get 25 cents. Lawmakers said the disparity was due to the differences in costs faced by those setting up the systems.

An official with the state's largest power company — Brian Keefe of Central Vermont Public Service Corp., said he remained concerned about how the legislation would affect customers, due to the relatively high cost of the power. By comparison, the company currently pays 4.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Backers of the bill said the renewable prices could be adjusted later by state regulators; they justified the levels set in the bill by saying they want to set up an incentive for renewable power development.

The House bill contains several other provisions, among them: