Renewable Portfolio Standards or RPS are standards, which have been adopted by states to voluntarily open up Green Energy Markets. So far almost all the Northeast or 11 states have already adopted the standards, but they are not alone as there are now 23 states in all which have adopted these standards and that means that the Renewable Portfolio Standards have been adopted in nearly have of the states in the United States of America and the momentum is clearly growing. These standards specify things such as technology mix of utilities and energy sources by state mandates.

Once such standards are mandated it becomes up to the utility itself to chose how to fulfill this mandate and which combinations of renewable energy sources it will use. Some free market thinkers say this is bad news because in the end such mandates cost the consumers, small businesses and industry and can take away quality of life to families due to higher energy costs, hurt small business and take away a competitive advantage to manufacturing in one state and give it to another or even another country.

Proponents love it because it means more Research and Development monies for new technologies, more revenues for existing generation facilities which do not participate and it is a home grown