All Entries Tagged With: "Renewable Energy Legislation"
Clever Accounting Lets Utilities Cash In When You Go Solar
August 13, 2011 Reprinted with Permission Copyright, all rights reserved I recently got a copy of a utility bill for a Minnesota business that has a 40-kilowatt (kW) solar PV array. I wanted to learn how quickly he’d pay off his array with the electricity savings. I was shocked. Payback time was 30 years. Even [...]
How to Design Feed-in Tariffs in the USA without Fear of Federal Preemption
August 10, 2011 The cavalry has finally arrived in the seemingly endless debate about what states can and can’t do in designing workable feed-in tariffs. The cavalry is in the form of two new papers describing how states can design feed-in tariff policies without running afoul of the US government’s power of preemption. Written by [...]
Wisconsin’s Widening War on Renewable Energy
by Michael Vickerman Dramatic slowdown in Wisconsin’s renewable energy market activity anticipated What started out as an opening salvo from the Walker Administration to shackle large-scale wind projects has in six months turned into a systematic campaign to dismantle the state policies that support renewable energy development. Joining the executive and legislative branches in pursuing [...]
Germany Passes New Renewable Energy Law for 2012
Ups Renewable Energy Target: Between 35% and 40% by 2020 Raises Payments for Biomass, Geothermal, & Offshore Wind Applies Standard Degression to Wind on Land and Solar PV Despite widespread rumors in North America that Germany was abandoning its system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, the country’s upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, approved the latest [...]
Ontario Solar PV Attracting $8 Billion in Private Investment
Solar PV Creates 12 Times More Jobs Than Nuclear–15 Times More Than Coal Ontario Solar PV Attracting $8 Billion in Private Investment Clean Generation Saves Ratepayers 20% November 23, 2010 By Paul Gipe Using a measure of cost that all Canadians understand, a provocative new report says the impact of Ontario’s feed-in tariffs for solar [...]
Ontario Feed-In Tariff Program: $8 billion of Deals So Far
(This article originally posted April, 2010, and is even more pertinent today; reprinted with permission.) Derek Wong is a Toronto based sustainability consultant. He holds an Engineering degree from University of Melbourne and is a CSA America certified greenhouse gas professional. See contact info and more posts like this at Carbon49.com. Ontario, the largest province [...]
Vermont Sees No Conflict between Feed-in Tariffs and Federal Law
October 8, 2010 By Paul Gipe In a big win for Vermont’s nascent feed-in tariff program, the state’s Public Service Board (PSB) ruled today that they see no conflict between the state’s program and the federal government. A challenge by Vermont’s Department of Public Service (DPS) had jeopardized several megawatts of solar PV projects that [...]
Ontario’s FIT Program a Success After One Year
By Tyler Hamilton Energy and Technology Columnist Ontario’s feed-in-tariff program is one year old on Oct. 1 and most would call it a success, judged strictly by the number of green-power projects it has attracted. But the word “success” can be good or bad depending on where you stand. For many, the success of this [...]
Electricity Feed Laws, Feed-in Laws, Feed-in Tariffs, Advanced Renewable Tariffs, and Renewable Energy Payments
While not exhaustive, this site contains an extensive collection of articles on Feed-in Tariffs, Advanced Renewable Tariffs, and Renewable Energy Payments. Learn more about feed-in tariffs and how they have been successful in Europe, and how they can benefit North Americans by following the links below. Primers on Feed-in Tariffs and Advanced Renewable Tariffs Renewable [...]
Germany’s Energy Success
The facts are remarkable. I could paraphrase or restate them for you, but why not just send you to the German Renewable Energy Agency’s site so you can see for your self. Please Click on this link: http://www.unendlich-viel-energie.de/en/economy/current-facts-and-figures.html
It’s Official: Ontario Third in North American 2009 Solar PV Capacity
Now in a Race for Second with New Jersey August 23, 2010 By Paul Gipe Finally, it’s official. Last year Ontario was the third largest market for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in North America. The Canadian province pushed aside Florida with an installation of 46 MW of solar PV and was only behind New Jersey, [...]
2010: The Year of Feed-In Tariff Legislation
A number of state legislatures attempted passage of Feed-In Tariff legislation last year. A few succeeded, but not anywhere near as many as should have. There were a number of lessons to be learned from the efforts. What we at Northern States Solar Services learned from all the attempts, whether they were successes and failures, [...]
Germany Is Shooting for 100% Renewables
With time, effort, and the spark of new ideas, it appears those brilliant researchers in Germany have once again found the basis for a realistic shot at taking Germany to 100% renewable energy. Please watch this video in it’s entirety. It’s only 7 minutes. Thanks to YOUTUBE at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR8gEMpzos4&feature=player_embedded As you can see, this is [...]
Want to Understand Feed-In Tariffs?
Thanks to Craig Lewis, at Right Cycle, here is a great presentation on the how’s, why’s, what works and what doesn’t: Craig Lewis FIT & WDG presentation April 2009 from Joshua LaForge on Vimeo. Also, here’s a great analysis for further understanding: REESA The Renewable Energy & Economic Stimulus Act of 2009 Contact us [...]
PACE — Will It Work?
The last year has brought about a new idea for enabling the growth of renewables. It is known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, for short. Here’s how it works. Actually there are a number of variations that a PACE program can be drafted as. The most common form is where a municipality, township, [...]
Minnesota CORE Legislation Is Ready to Go!!!
After a full year of planning and many hours of hard work, Minnesota’s CORE Bill (House File 3618) is now introduced. The companion bill is Senate File 3320. The CORE Bill is commonly known as a Feed-In Tariff. If you are interested in having Renewable Energy in Minnesota on a grand scale, THIS LEGISLATION IS [...]
Nearly 80% of Stimulus Dollars for Wind Power Have Gone to Foreign Companies!!!
ABC News said it all. Take a listen, draw your own conclusions, and then, CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES, AT THE NATIONAL AND THE STATE LEVEL, AND ASK THEM WHAT THEY ARE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/green-stimulus-jobs-china-9791423 Here’s the sites to find out your national congress people: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm To find your state legislators, [...]
Leasing a Solar System: Some Questions You Might Want to Ask First
There are a number of new solar leasing companies arriving on the scene lately. Many claim to offer solar energy options that may appear much less complicated and cost less than installing one’s own system, and therefore be more affordable while still being able to contribute to the improvement of our environment. Are such opportunities [...]
Want to Understand Cap & Trade?
I recently came across this podcast from Renewable Energy World.com. It is an excellent presentation on so many of the aspects of that vaguery we call ‘Cap & Trade’. Though it is about an hour long, it is well worth the time spent listening. So get yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back [...]
What Is A Feed-In Tariff?
What Is A Feed-In Tariff? To maintain objectivity, we are quoting: From Wikipedia: A Feed-in Tariff (FiT, Feed-in Law, FiL, solar premium[1], Renewable Tariff[2] or renewable energy payments[3]) is an incentive structure to encourage the adoption of renewable energy through government legislation. The regional or national electricity utilities are obligated to buy renewable electricity (electricity [...]
