Can You Benefit From Feed-In Tariffs?: Renewable Energy Articles: Eco20/20

Can You Benefit From Feed-In Tariffs?

Feed-in tariffs are exactly what they sound like: a tariff paid for energy that is fed into the public grid from privately owned generators. Many people wonder if they can benefit from feed-in tariffs, and if so, how?

In some cases, as in Florida, the tariff pays more for the natural energy received from the homeowner than the homeowner had previously paid for energy from common nuclear-engineered power sources. This may be a great incentive for many homeowners to not only harvest, use and store natural energy, but also to share this energy. This sharing of energy to be stored at a larger grid scale will help ensure that there is enough natural energy to power the entire locale despite certain variables, such as storms, that may otherwise affect the smaller storage units, such as personal use storage devices.

Another benefit of the feed-in tariff is the fact that most contracts for power purchase are long term, averaging anywhere from ten to sixty years, and only gradually declining. This is to create a surge of subscribers or power brokers, which will increase not only supply of energy, but also demand for harvesting, generating, and storage devices. As the law of economics states, when both supply and demand increase, the price will decrease. This will help make these devices more affordable to a larger demographic, which will increase the amount of energy harvested and therefore sold back to the utility companies, which will in turn supply a constant, consistent energy flow to the power grid. This does not just benefit the individual power broker; it also benefits the entire community.

Benefiting from feed-in tariffs require research, however. Higher rates are paid for energy sources where there is not a consistent environment for said resource. For example, an area that does not have much wind will generate a higher tariff for wind-generated energy than a location that has an abundance of wind to capture. Also, certain resources will have a higher tariff than others in order to promote the use of that particular resource. For example, if a particular grid wanted to supply mainly solar-generated power, the government would pay a higher tariff for solar-energy feed-ins.

In the five states within the U.S. that currently have feed-in tariffs in place for solar subscriptions, many local and state governments have had to quickly cap the pay outs for purchasing renewable due to overwhelming response and subscription. This information quickly makes one wonder if the government of such states are simply paying lip service to a greener population, thinking it sounds good, but isn't really worth their time or effort. This is not the kind of response countries overseas have generated.

Germany is one of the world's most successful solar and wind energy using countries. The feed-in tariff has been a huge success. Germany began its feed-in tariff program in 1990, and led into yet another successful tariff program that followed in 1999. The feed-in tariff program generated such a response that electricity has remained stable throughout, and the surge of individuals installing solar and wind harvesting devices and energy generating and storing devices led to an industry boom that quickly became more the norm that the exception. This alone proves that if a government is willing to back its words and fully fund a feed-in tariff, the green population will step forward and take action, leading the way into a greener, cleaner and healthier future.