The Swiss, famed for their democratic traditions, chocolate, and knives with corkscrews, have adopted an aggressive feed-in tariff to promote the rapid development of renewable energy.

The Swiss federal government has launched an aggressive system of feed-in tariffs that pays any renewable energy generator for every kWh of electricity generated. The Swiss system, which is just four months old, has a schedule of tariffs differentiated by technology, size and application, which sets payments per kilowatt-hour (kWh), for solar photovoltaics, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass.

The payments are made for periods of 20 to 25 years, depending upon the technology. [Read more]

New investment tax credit of up to $4k a boon to small turbine industry

[Adapted from my post at Red, Green, & Blue] Squeezed into the much-ballyhooed $700 billion economic bailout were several “sweeteners” that were necessary to push the package through so quickly. Extended were the tax credits for solar, wind, and geothermal as well as tax credits for green building and energy efficiency. But what also passed was a new federal-level investment tax credit for qualified small wind turbines. The ITC is valued at $500/.5kw capacity for up to $4,000 and available for small and micro-wind turbines (up to 100kw), including vertical-axis wind turbines, installed through 2016. [Read more]

Now that the offshore wind farm permitting process is becoming a little clearer, an increasing number of offshore wind energy projects are appearing on the regulatory horizon. The state of Rhode Island is giving Massachusetts, Texas, and Delaware a run for their money in the race to become the first U.S. state to lay claim to an offshore windfarm in its coastal waters. The state named New Jersey-based Deep Water Wind to build the estimated $1.5 billion project.

While it is beyond astonishing that this race to be the first has yet to be won, alas, it has not. [Read more]

Conservatives call into question highly successful feed-in tariff

[Originally posted at Red, Green, and Blue on 5.19.08] There is a reason that Germany has half of the world’s installed solar generating capacity, and it is not the Northern European country’s boundless sunshine. Renewable energy capacity has achieved such tremendous growth because of the German government’s aggressive energy policy.

The policy vehicle responsible for the rapid acceleration of the country’s renewable energy capacity, known as a feed-in tariff (FIT), guarantees a fixed-rate of return for homeowners and farmers who install solar, wind, small hydro, biomass, and methane capturing systems and sell their surplus electricity back to the grid. Germany has Europe’s highest feed-in tariffs, allowing consumers to earn around 40 euro cents ($0.62) per kWh compared to paying retail rates of 18 euro cents per kWh after taxes and support fees.

Electricity generated through Germany’s feed-in law produces about 50 terawatt-hours (billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity per year, or nearly 15% of German electricity consumption (1). This adds an average of only 1.01 euros ($1.69) a month to a typical home electricity bill.

But despite the law’s success, conservatives in the German Bundestag want to ratchet back the incentives that support renewable energy development. [Read more]