Pennsylvania’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) was created by S.B. 1030 on November 30, 2004.

Eligible Technologies

Pennsylvania Sited Solar

Alternative Energy Credits (AEC) are produced by individual small generators located in Pennsylvania. These system owners may contract with an aggregator who will bundle RECs and facilitate the sale of RECs on behalf of the system owners. These credits have historically been valued higher than the out of state solar that qualify for PA Tier 1

The eligible alternative energy resources are categorized into two “Tiers”.

Tier I sources include new and existing facilities which produce electricity using the following sources/technologies: photovoltaic energy, solar-thermal energy, wind, low-impact hydro, geothermal, biomass, wood pulping and manufacturing byproducts from energy facilities within the state, biologically-derived methane gas, coal-mine methane, and fuel cells.

Tier II sources include (new and existing) waste coal, distributed generation (DG) systems less than 5 MW in capacity, demand-side management, large-scale hydro, municipal solid waste, wood pulping and manufacturing byproducts from energy facilities located outside the state, useful thermal energy, and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal technology. (See 73 P.S. § 1648.2 for detailed definitions of eligible alternative-energy sources.) Provision for “useful thermal energy” is defined as as thermal energy created from the production of electricity. This technology and fuel neutral definition of useful thermal energy essentially allows combine heat and power (CHP) facilities to qualify as a Tier II resource, however, this definition expressively prohibits combined-cycle electric generation facilities as being considered as an eligible resource.

All solar systems interconnected in PJM territory are eligible for the Pennsylvania Tier 1 REC market from D.C., DE, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, NJ, NC, OH, PA, TN, VA, and WV

Tracking Registry: GATS