Regulations:
The market for anaerobic digestion systems is affected by several local, state and federal air, water quality and energy regulations. In California, three of the most significant are AB 32, the Renewable Portfolio Standard, and CalRecycle’s 2009 Strategic Directive 6.1.
AB 32 – California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
Signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, this landmark bill mandates the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020 – a reduction of approximately 30 percent, and then an 80 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2050. Given that the methane emissions from organic waste are 72 times more harmful than equivalent carbon emissions from automobiles, proper organic waste disposal is of keen interest to California regulators
Renewable Portfolio Standard
Established in 2002 under Senate Bill 1078 and accelerated in 2006 under Senate Bill 107, California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) was one of the most ambitious renewable energy standards in the country. It required investor-owned utilities, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators to achieve 20% procurement from eligible renewable energy resources by 2010.
The ante was upped in 2009 when Governor Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order (EO) S-21-09 directing the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt regulations requiring 33 percent of electricity sold in the state come from renewable energy by 2020. This has led California utilities to actively invest in all manner of renewable energy production, including biogas from AD systems.
Most experts agree that existing transmission capacity is woefully inadequate to handle the massive amount of new generation required to meet this mark. Alternatively, they stress that a significant amount of distributed generation must be produced to achieve the standard. This bodes well for AD systems, which process waste and produce energy on sight, requiring less demand on the transmission infrastructure.
CalRecycle Strategic Directive 6.1
CalRecycle (formerly the California Integrated Waste Management Board) has as a core value to assist in the development of viable, sustainable markets to divert materials from landfills in accordance with the waste management hierarchy and in support of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. A key component of this Directive is item 6.1, which states a goal of diverting 50% of organic waste from landfills by 2020.