Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff Legislation Introduced in U.S. Congress
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 06.27.08
photo by Patrick Boury
While the Senate dawdles with one set of renewable energy incentives, four members of the House of Representatives, led by Jay Inslee (D-Washington), have introduced a new piece of legislation that everyone concerned about alternative energy in the United States really needs to watch.
Feed-In Tariff Legislation Introduced into House
The Renewable Energy Jobs and Security Act would create a feed-in tariff system of payments for small to mid-sized renewable energy suppliers (sites up to 20MW in size) similar to the one which has had such success, and has been recently expanded, in Germany.
Under a feed-in tariff system renewable electricty producers are paid a fixed, above market-rate, tariff for the electricity that is fed into the grid. The cost of this is then spread across all consumers of electricty. In Germany the estimated additional cost to the average family of three is €2 per month.
Inslee: “The feed-in tariff enacted in Germany in 2003 has helped the European nation achieve 55 percent of the world's installed solar capacity, provide 14 percent of its electricity supply from renewable sources and create at least 140,000 jobs. Similar policies also have been adopted by France, Spain and over 40 other countries, provinces and states.”
Inslee’s bill has three main components: guaranteed interconnection to the grid, long-term fixed rate contracts with electric utilities, and a rate-recovery program through a regional cost-sharing commission to minimize the impact on consumers. The bill would set technology-specific rates that utilities would pay renewable energy suppliers, that would incrementally decrease every two years for the 20 year lifespan of the tariff.
Though Inslee does not mention it, given the reports that we’ve seen recently about renewable energy reaching parity with fossil fuels, some of these rates should probably be set to depreciate more quickly than others, but overall the plan is sound.
New Direction in US Renewable Energy Promotion?
It may not seem it at first, and provided there are no demons lurking in the end pages of this bill which limit its effectiveness, this bill could dramatically change the way in which renewable energy is promoted in the United States.
Co-sponsoring the bill with Inslee are Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.; no relation to post author), and Mike Honda (D-Cali.). A companion bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.
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It sound like a truly beautiful, perhaps visionary, piece of legislation. I can only hope it passes without being butchered to the point of uselessness and unrecognizability.
It will pass without a hitch if there is a subsidy to oil companies and maybe a no-bid contract for Halliburton included in the bill.
so, are they gonna give us 65 cents a watt like Germany? Don't invoke Germany unless you are willing to also meet their program. because a tariff is no good unless it's serious money.
California, which keeps getting all this good press, even though none of theri programs actually WORK, has done it again. The CPUC pilot program for feed-in tariffs is total crap.
total output of ANY sized system in the Prime Solar Resource area of the Mojave? can't pay for itself in the first 15 years. I'm not talking about "after you subtract power that is used." i'm talking about 100% of power being bought at the rates set for Edison, which are the HIGHEST, and you cannot possibly pay off a PV system of any size over the entire 20 year lifecycle of the system (assuming $8/watt, installed).
did i mention that if you want to get the tariff, you cannot get any of their much - PR'd rebates? nope, you have to choose between.
So, until we see some SERIOUS numbers, and unless this is coupled with some SERIOUS up-front incentives, it is just more lip service without any results.