Why Not Ohio? Feed-In Tariffs Can Spur Green Energy Growth

[Rick Rowlands]

How does the feed in tariff generate tax revenues?  Isn't that a rate paid to small time generators of electricity?  I don't understand why government has to get a cut of that.

What is an "above retail rate"?  Does that mean that the power companies have to buy power at a higher rate than they sell it for?

[irishbobcat]

Why Not Ohio? Feed-In Tariffs Can Spur Green Energy Growth

The feed-in tariff (FIT) has exploded renewable growth every place it has been implemented and a new study from UC Berkeley says it will do the same in California.

A FIT is an above-retail rate ("tariff") paid for renewable energy-generated electricity that producers "feed" into the grid. It was first used in California in the late 1970s and early 1980s but failed at that time due to design flaws and lack of support. Revived in Germany with stunning success in the early 2000s, the FIT concept has subsequently been used successfully, according to Professor Dan Kammen, the lead author of the UC Berkeley study and one of the foremost U.S. renewable energy authorities, in at least fifteen countries. Dozens more are considering implementation.

The proposed California FIT has been carefully designed to drive the growth of projects in the one-to-twenty-megawatt range. This spectrum encompasses both small solar systems driven by the state's "million solar roofs" initiative and utility-scale projects driven by its Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) that requires regulated utilities to obtain twenty percent of their power from renewable sources by the end of this year and 33 percent from renewable sources by 2020.

According to the study Economic Benefits of a Comprehensive Feed-In Tariff: An Analysis of the REESA in California, from Kammen and Max Wei of the University of California, Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and Resources Group, a well-designed feed-in tariff like the one used by the newest version of REESA, will bring California $2 billion in additional tax revenues and $50 billion in new investment, add an average of 50,000 new jobs each year for a decade and provide the mega-growth in renewables that California will need to meet its newly mandated standard of 33% renewable electricity by 2020.

Why Not Ohio? Why isn't Ted STrickland pushing for feed-in tariffs? Is it because once again we see that Ted Strickland can not think outside the box when it comes to promoting Green Energy in Ohio? Is it because TEd STrickland is so committed to dirty coal and nuke energy he lacks the drive and passon for feed-in tariffs? I believe so.

Dennis S. Spisak-Green Party of Ohio Nominee for Ohio Governor