Because of Bernard Chabot’s work in North America describing a simple method for calculating the appropriate tariffs to use in a system of feed-in tariffs and because Monsieur Chabot does not maintain his own web site, I have taken the liberty of posting some of his work here. My intent is to provide some background on Monsieur Chabot and his method for those jurisdictions in Canada and the United States who may wish to use his services.–Paul Gipe
Bernard Chabot is a graduate of ENSAM as his biography states. However, for non francphones it should be added that ENSAM is the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, one of France’s Grand Ecoles. For American’s this is equivalent to France’s “Ivy League” for the British it’s equivalent to Ox-Bridge. The leaders of science, industry, and government in France are often, if not solely, graduates of the Grand Ecoles.
Monsieur Chabot has spent much of his professional life as a researcher at ADEME, Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency. ADEME is equivalent to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US or the National Research Council in Canada. Chabot is fluent in English and he writes and speaks worldwide in both English and French on the subject of renewable energy. He has specialized in an economic analysis of the specific feed-in tariffs necessary for the rapid development of renewable energy.
Monsieur Chabot was the principal consultant to the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) in developing the methodology for calculating the tariffs needed in Ontario, Canada to develop a system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs patterned after those in Germany and France.
In early 2005, Monsieur Chabot along OSEA and industry stakeholders calculated the tariffs suitable for wind and solar energy in Ontario’s proposed Standard Offer Contract program. These tariffs were not adopted when the program was launched in 2006.
However, when Ontario proposed a new system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs in the spring of 2009 to replace the Standard Offer Contract Program, the tariffs for wind and residential rooftop solar PV were almost exactly those proposed by Monsieur Chabot in his 2005 calculations.
