Electricity Feed Laws & Feed-in Tariffs
While not exhaustive, this site contains an extensive collection of articles on Feed-in Tariffs, Advanced Renewable Tariffs, Renewable Energy Payments, and what some Americans are calling CLEAN contracts. Learn more about feed-in tariffs and how they have been successful in Europe, and how they can benefit North Americans.
What are Feed-in Tariffs?
Feed-in tariffs are simply payments per kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by a renewable resource. In North America this simple idea is known by many different names: Electricity Feed Laws, Feed-in Laws, Feed-in Tariffs (FITs), Advanced Renewable Tariffs (ARTs), Renewable Tariffs, Renewable Energy Payments, and more recently CLEAN (for Clean Local Energy Accessible Now) contracts. Regardless of the name, they are the world’s most successful policy mechanism for stimulating the rapid development of renewable energy.
Feed-in tariffs are also the most egalitarian method for determining where, when, and how much renewable generating capacity will be installed. Renewable Tariffs enable homeowners, farmers, cooperatives, and First Nations (Native North Americans) to participate on an equal footing with large commercial developers of renewable energy.
Electricity Feed Laws permit the interconnection of renewable sources of electricity with the electric-utility network and at the same time specify how much the renewable generator is paid for their electricity and over how long a period.
Electricity Feed Laws have been widely used in Europe, most notably in Germany, France, and Spain.
Advanced Renewable Tariffs (ARTs) are the modern version of Electricity Feed Laws. ARTs differ from simpler feed-in tariffs in several important ways. Most importantly, ARTs are differentiated by technology, application, project size, or resource intensity. There is one price for wind energy, another price for solar, and so on. Tariffs within each technology can also be differentiated by project size or, in the case of wind and solar energy, by the productivity of the resource. Tariffs for new projects are also subject to periodic review to determine if the tariffs are sufficiently robust to meet the targets desired in the time allotted.
What are Tariffs?
Tariffs are the price paid per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed, or in this case, generated. The term is commonly used in North America’s electric utility industry. The term is also commonly used in Europe. Tariffs are not taxes nor in this context customs duties on goods crossing international borders.
Evolution of Feed-in Tariffs
By
Paul Gipe
Feed-in tariffs are a generic description of a policy that pays a price, a “tariff”, for the electricity generated by …
FIT for Cities: Making Renewable Energy a Priority
By
Tim Weis
In the absence of provincial or state laws, municipal governments have the opportunity to spur renewable energy development within their region. One of the ways they can do this is through feed-in tariffs. Feed-in tariffs (FITs) provide payment for each unit of electricity generated from a renewable source such as wind or solar. They are now widely regarded as the most successful policy in facilitating low-impact renewable energy. . .
Are Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia Moving Toward Feed-in Tariffs?
By
An obscure British web site reported that “Both Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are planning to adopt a feed-in tariff that will promote both the use of and mass acceptance of solar energy within the two countries over the coming years.
