The Public Service Department is in the process of updating the state’s “Comprehensive Energy Plan” or CEP. Here is what should be in it: a proactive agenda to accelerate the deployment of wind, solar, and storage while enhancing grid and demand flexibility.
A diversified, renewable portfolio that can draw on terrestrial and offshore wind, distributed solar, local and regional hydro, and energy storage is the best path to meet growing electricity demand, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigate energy price increases. The cost of natural gas plants tripled between 2022 and 2025, and now exceeds the cost of onshore wind or solar facilities even before considering the cost of fuel. Nuclear power, while back in vogue at the federal level, remains plagued by cost overruns, and Vermont has no business being the guinea pig for a nuclear reboot of unknown cost. By promoting proven renewable technologies that can provide long-term power contracts at predictable costs, the CEP would protect Vermonters from volatile energy prices while protecting the climate.
Crucially, focusing on accelerating the deployment of wind and solar would also align the CEP with Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), which requires a growing share of our power to come from new renewable resources. Failure to align the CEP with the RES, passed with supermajority support in 2024, would put the document on the fast track to irrelevance.
Here are some other lessons the Department should draw from its 2022 CEP:
Don’t overlook in-state renewables
The “Central Mitigation Scenario” in the 2022 plan envisioned Vermont utilities purchasing a rapidly increasing share of their power from offshore wind while the share of in-state renewable generation stagnated. By 2023, it was clear that the Department’s timeline for offshore wind was unrealistic, and it had undersold in-state renewables. In-state solar projects can be constructed more quickly than other new generation sources and are relatively insulated from federal interference. The CEP must emphasize achieving the in-state requirements in the Renewable Energy Standard and look for ways to bring down barriers to renewable siting.
Champion regulatory reform
The easiest way to make new, in-state renewable energy cheaper for Vermonters is to reduce barriers to a quick and predictable permitting process. The 2022 CEP made the outlandish claim that by “any reasonable measure, the existing siting process allows well-sited generation projects to be built in Vermont,” but the truth is that project timelines and project costs are all too frequently inflated by a permitting process that is subjective, unpredictable, and excessively deferential to NIMBYs. The CEP should identify common-sense reforms, such as facilitating the colocation of solar installations that the governor vetoed in 2026, to make the permitting process more efficient.
Urge State Action on Offshore Wind
While the Department’s 2022 plan was overly optimistic about the timeline for offshore wind availability, offshore wind needs to be a central part of our energy mix in the future. Vermont should be more aggressive in procuring this resource. In 2023, Massachusetts and Rhode Island participated in a joint procurement process to contract for 1,400 MW of offshore wind. While unprecedented federal interference in the offshore wind market unraveled the contracting process between the states and the RFP winner, these are the kind of opportunities that Vermont should be looking to participate in. (To its credit, the Department has assisted Vermont utilities in participating in the bidding process for other regional renewables.) Vermont should actively develop an offshore wind procurement program to ensure that Vermont has access to this resource.
Embrace Net Metering
The Department’s 2023 polling found that 93% of Vermonters support solar, and follow-up focus groups found “[m]ost participants preferred to place solar panels on existing residential and commercial buildings or in parking lots or other spaces that were already developed.” In other words, Vermonters overwhelmingly support net metering projects, which are almost exclusively backyard and rooftop solar projects. The 2026 CEP should recognize that rooftop and built environment solar projects provide concrete land use and environmental benefits. It should commit to keeping the current compensation rules in place for existing systems while building a robust net metering program to support self-consumed solar and solar + storage systems that export during peak periods.