Wisconsin has the opportunity to develop wind, biomass and solar power, which offer environmental benefits, improved reliability, and economic development in the growing renewable energy business sector. Furthermore, Wisconsin has great potential to develop new efficient generators, such as CHP, using natural gas. Together, the opportunities shown in Figure 3 could supply 17 percent of Wisconsin's generation capacity by 2010, and 41 percent by 2020.

The Clean Energy Development Plan can be realized at a modest cost, as energy efficiency savings offset the cost of new generation. In Wisconsin, it would increase overall electricity costs by about 1.5 percent in 2010, and 3.4 percent in 2020.

Smart policies can overcome the many market and regulatory barriers that energy efficiency and renewable resources face. Wisconsin has already adopted some policies to promote clean power options, but more must be done to succeed. The key policy actions to achieve the Clean Energy Development Plan are to:

1. Increase Wisconsin's Energy Efficiency Investment Fund to 0.3¢/kWh.
2. Evaluate and update Wisconsin's efficiency standards and building codes. Establish or reinforce monitoring and enforcement practices.
3. Modify Wisconsin's Renewables Portfolio Standard so that the percentage requirement reaches eight percent by 2010 and 20 percent by 2020.
4. Ensure that transmission pricing policies and power pooling practices treat renewable resources fairly and account for their intermittent nature, remote locations, or smaller scale.
5. Remove barriers to clean distributed generation by: (1) establishing standard business and interconnection terms; (2) establishing uniform safety and power quality standards to facilitate safe and economic interconnection to the electricity system; and (3) applying clean air standards to small distributed generation sources, thereby promoting clean power technologies, and discouraging highly polluting diesel generators.