In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley signed a law in August that requires big utilities to meet 12.5 percent of electricity demand with renewable sources such as solar energy, wind, hydropower and energy efficiency measures by 2021. North Carolina became the 25th state, and the first in the Southeast, to set standards for renewable energy sales.
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But change is not without cost. Residential customers will pay more for renewable energy, which is more expensive to produce than electricity from burning coal. To pay the cost of producing more renewable energy, the utilities might add a $10 [annual] fee to home energy bills starting in 2008 and eventually increase the fee to $34.
With 3.2 million households in North Carolina, the cost of the 12.5% renewable law is at least $32 million annually. At least, since utilities can't pass the entire cost on to consumers (demand curves slope down in my world. And they're linear too!).
