Overall, we believe that this handful of relatively straightforward measures could materially enhance the transition towards a low-carbon Electricity System at low cost. The Energiewende gets a bad rap in the English-language press, even though it has helped create a competitive renewable energy industry from scratch – something the whole world benefits from, even though mostly German ratepayers pay for it. Our proposed reforms would help reduce that last item.
If we are to meet the Paris climate targets, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy are needed now more than ever says a report by Toby Couture and colleagues at Proseu, Prosumers for the Energy Union. The topic is timely as world leaders gather in Glasgow for COP 26 to discuss ways of drastically cutting carbon emissions.
In a sign that Feed-in Tariffs as a policy mechanism for the rapid—and equitable—development of renewable energy are not dead and that their proponents have not given up the hope of a brighter post Covid-19 future, the Energy Watch Group has released a major new report.
European tidal power capacity continued rising throughout 2019. This brought it to a cumulative 27.7 MW. That figure represents nearly four times as much as the total figure from the rest of the world. This was achieved despite a deployment slowdown in Europe. Developers have been readying themselves for larger projects to be installed in the water within the next handful of years, reducing the number of smaller installations currently being added.
Feed-in tariffs (FITs) are crucial tools to increase the adoption of renewable energy technologies. But setting them at the right level (price) is a balancing act. If they are poorly designed, they can backfire, stunting the industry and wasting public money. A duo of HEC researchers, along with a colleague from the University of Texas at Austin, have shown that, to set optimal FIT levels, regulators must take into account the behaviours all players affected, including technology manufacturers.
The report recommends policies such as feed-in tariffs to encourage a greater diversity of individuals and groups involved in energy generation.
Once they reach the fire, they will pump water on that fire to put it out as fast as possible. There will not be an auction set up where water suppliers can enter bids and the cheapest supplier gets to deliver the water.
I am not sure if this will help reduce costs. But judging from the German experience, it will be a great way to slow down the speed of increasing the renewable percentage. That’s because any auction system is not market based. You can win only auctions that are held in the first place, so the state gets to decide on how much new capacity is introduced, not the market.
More and more national governments are transitioning from successful fixed feed-in tariff models to tendering schemes as the means of promoting renewable energies (RE). Yet the disadvantages of tenders, which operate like instruments of a planned economy, are varied, significant, and long known.
If you want to help coal miners and coal companies, you need to introduce a feed-in tariff for coal. Just like a feed-in tariff helped phase in renewable energy (mostly paid for by Germany back when solar was expensive), now a feed-in tariff is needed to phase out coal in a orderly and responsible way.
2023 © Wind-Works by Paul Gipe