New Hampshire calls for 25% green power by 2025

New Hampshire, the last state in New England without legislation for a minimum standard for the renewable energy content of its electricity portfolio, has joined its neighbours with a law calling for 25% green power by 2025. While the target is among the more aggressive set for renewables by nearly half the US states, it includes existing hydropower and biomass. As a result, the law is not expected to push a big wave of wind development. The state has only 1.3 million residents and summer peak demand is only 2500 MW. Moreover, developing wind power in crowded New England is notoriously difficult. More biomass projects are seen as the most likely candidate for new project development since New Hampshire is blessed with some of the most productive forests, by hectare, among all US states. While some small commercial wind plants are installed in nearby Vermont and Massachusetts, New Hampshire still has no commercial wind developments and only one in an early and uncertain stage. Only Maine, its neighbour to the Northeast, has bucked the New England trend with a 42 MW wind farm online late last year.