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.
Fossil Fuel Feed-In Tariffs
By
Karl-friedrich Lenz
It would work exactly like the successful solar tariff, with one small change. There would be a cap on the fossil fuel electricity bought under the system. That cap would be calculated from the already existing goals for renewable. Look at the renewable goal, subtract that from 100 percent, and you get the cap for fossil fuel under the feed-in tariff.
Solar twice as expensive in US as in Germany
By
Craig Morris
Here, we see that the price of a completely installed solar array has been and continues to be considerably cheaper in Germany than in the US. The gap seems to have been around two dollars all along. Now that the price in Germany has fallen to two dollars, solar is now twice as expensive in the US as it is in Germany.
7 Cleantech Ideas & Developments That Are Bringing Us A Low-Carbon Economy
By
Zachary Shahan
The humble (or not so humble) feed-in tariff is connected to the majority of the solar and wind power capacity installed in the world. If this policy is new to you, it’s actually quite simple, so take a second to prepare for your next dinner chat.
How to design a successful auction for renewable energy projects
By
Rolf De Vos and Corinna Klessman
Auctions may invoke strategic behaviour of market players which can drive up costs. Market players will also try to exercise market power. Large market actors may have a favoured position over their smaller competitors.
Policy invention as evolutionary tinkering and codification: the emergence of feed-in tariffs for renewable electricity
By
David Jacobs
The invention of feed-in tariffs to support renewable energy is analysed. The invention of this policy instrument was the product of a long process of evolutionary tinkering that started in the 1970s, beginning with policies originally implemented to support cogeneration power plants, followed by many small and seemingly irrelevant modifications in order to meet the needs of renewable energy producers. Only by unpacking the policy into its design elements can the long, drawn-out process of policy invention be fully understood. Policymakers adjusted the policy design over time, learning by trial and error. This learning was only possible because the initial effects of the policy were underestimated and natural opponents were distracted by other policies and activities. To allow policy inventions to occur, policymakers should provide protective space to make the necessary amendments for policy success.
Renewables International: The cost of wind
By
Jérôme Guillet and John Evans
That is the point of feed-in tariffs, which provide stable, predictable revenue to wind producers, and ensure that their maximum production is injected into the system at all times, which influences market prices by making supply of more expensive production unnecessary. . . These tariffs make sense for consumers. The higher fixed price (feed-in tariff) is added to the electricity buyers’ bill, but as that bill is lower, thanks to wind input, than it would have otherwise been, the actual net cost of the tariffs is much lower than it appears. . . i.e. an apparent fixed cost imposed on consumers ends up reducing their bills.
