The German FIT model was so successful that the government buyback decreased from a high of €0.58/kWh in 2004 to €0.12/kWh in 2017 for small PV roof systems and less than €0.10/kWh for ground-mounted and large roof systems.
USA FIT
If we’re committed to reaching zero emissions, we must return to that goal of local self-sufficiency, this time with free power from the sun & wind instead of clear-cutting forests or burning fossils
Feed-in tariffs at the federal and state level have been proven to be highly effective around the world. It’s time to bring back this powerful tool to really move the ball forward on the renewable energy transition in all states, not just the progressive leading states.
A federal feed-in tariff like Germany’s or China’s, which pays a guaranteed price for energy produced by renewables, could both drive renewables investment.
The much maligned Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, PURPA for short, is back in the news. Not that it ever went away. PURPA has been the foundation stone upon which renewable electricity generation has been built in the United States.
A successful plan that has boosted renewable energy investments in more than 50 countries is a policy mechanism called, “feed-in tariffs.” The plan pays a competitive price for locally produced renewable energy, which is more efficient than energy imported from distant solar and wind farms.
In recent years, feed-in tariff activity has focused primarily on revisions to current policies, underscoring the need for stable and predictable, yet flexible, policy environments
Using RPSs and FITs as proxies, this article makes the case for closer integration of quantity- and price-based policies for better allocation of investor and regulatory risk. With aggregate risk mitigation greater than the subtotal of its parts, a joint RPS-FIT regime requires lower returns to leverage private-sector investment in renewables while ensuring sustainable growth in clean energy deployment.
The gold standard, however, for maximizing both the speed of development and the spread of economic development benefits is the feed-in tariff policy first pioneered by the United States in the late 1970s.
This report is a comprehensive study taking an in-depth look at Germany’s solar support programs and how the United States can benefit in the long term from the experiences of the world’s leading solar producer. . . “By and large, the German path has been remarkably successful, given the goal – shared by a great majority of the population – of ‘de-fossilizing’ Germany’s electricity sector.”
