Clean and Sustainable

摘要

Renewable energy technologies hold tremendous promise in moving the Nation toward sustained, low-emission electricity supply. Government-sponsored research and development efforts over recent decades have been very successful in helping to lower the costs and improve the reliability of renewable energy technologies, and more can be achieved with robust research and development in the future. The Administration believes that, in the context of a comprehensive energy strategy, more is needed for renewables to gain market share and contribute to our energy independence and environmental objectives. That is why the President's FY 2005 Budget includes energy tax proposals devoted to increasing efficiency and renewable energy, such as extending and modifying the tax credit for producing electricity from biomass and wind, providing tax credits for energy produced from landfill gas, residential solar energy systems, and investment in combined heat and power; and extending the ethanol tax exemption. Another important factor is that these renewable sources of generation must be able to integrate into our existing distribution system. The tools that form the necessary interface between distributed energy systems and the grid need to be less expensive, faster, more reliable and more compact. And as pointed out in the National Energy Policy, renewables don't fit into traditional regulatory categories and are often subjected to competing regulatory requirements. The lack of uniform interconnection protocols and regulatory treatment is another area where developers of small renewable energy projects have to negotiate interconnection agreements on a site-by-site basis.