EU Member States - Articles
| UK And Australia Progress On Feed In Tariffs |
| Date: 1-Dec-2008 |
With royal assent last week granted to Britain's controversial Energy Bill, Britain is now committed to dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
The Energy Bill will oblige the UK to cut gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and additionally see the introduction of a feed in tariff, paying owners of small grid connected wind energy and solar power systems a premium rate on all electricity they produce.
Feed in tariff programs, when implemented properly, have been demonstrated to significantly boost the uptake of grid connected renewable energy systems in homes and businesses. However, for a feed in tariff program to achieve its full potential, it must be based on a gross model.
Under a gross model, payments are made on all energy produced, whereas a net program pays only on surplus electricity exported to the grid. A feed in tariff rate must also be high enough in terms of premium rate paid per kilowatt hour. The rate that householders and businesses in the UK will receive on electricity generated is yet to be determined.
Australia meanwhile is still thrashing out a nationalised, uniform gross feed in tariff program as proposed in a bill by Senator Christine Milne of the Australian Greens earlier this year. While most states offer feed in tariffs, prices and conditions vary widely and most are based on a net model that provides little incentive for home owners to install solar power systems.
It was expected by many in the renewable energy industry that that recent Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting held over the weekend in Canberra would see a formal major announcement on the implementation of a national feed in tariff program, but according to the COAG communique:
"COAG agreed to a set of national principles to apply to new Feed-in Tariff schemes and to inform the reviews of existing schemes. These principles will promote national consistency of schemes across Australia."
Timelines, details of the national principles and more in-depth information regarding the agreement between governments as discussed at the COAG meeting is not yet available; but no announcements were made regarding any federal funding of related programs. |
| Source: energymatters.com.au |
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| British Feed-in Tariff Policy Becomes Law--Was Once Unthinkable |
| Date: 28-Nov-2008 |
November 28, 2008
By Paul Gipe
The Queen gave her "royal assent" to Britain's long-debated Energy Bill on November 26, 2008, putting into law Britain's commitment to dramatically cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
The Energy Bill also contained provisions calling on Gordon Brown's Labour government to implement a system of feed-in tariffs for small renewable energy producers by 2010.
The feed-in tariff provisions were once unthinkable in the British political landscape. They said it "couldn't be done" is how British campaigners described the remarkable success.
Since Margaret Thatcher, Britain has relied on a series of call for tenders and eventually a complex quota system to build a modest wind energy industry dominated by the word's largest electric utilities. There was little more than token support for small-scale renewables through traditional subsidy programs under successive Conservative and Labour governments.
Meanwhile on the continent, renewables were booming, first in Denmark, then in Germany, France, and Spain through the use of innovative systems of feed-in tariffs. These systems of Advanced Renewable Tariffs spurred growth of a variety of renewable energy technologies at all scales. In Germany, a large percentage of solar and wind energy are being developed by homeowners, farmers, and small investors.
The feed-in tariff provisions of Britain's Energy Bill are modest in comparison to those in other countries. In contrast to continental European policies, projects are limited to no more than 5 MW. There are no project size limits in Germany, for example. Nor does the Energy Bill contain the specific provisions or prices that are part of such acts in France and Germany. Specific provisions will be determined administratively in 2009.
The Energy Bill leaves in place Britain's existing Renewable Obligation Certificate trading program for larger projects. The two programs, the Renewable Obligation and the feed-in tariff system, will operate in parallel.
There was cross party agreement on amendments to the bill that included the essential elements of any successful feed-in tariff policy. For example, there was an amendment that called for different tariffs for different renewable energy technologies a key feature of the policies in Germany, France, and Spain. The cross party agreement included both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.
The campaign for the Energy Bill was led by Friends of the Earth (UK) and Britain's Renewable Energy Association.
According to FOE campaigner David Timm, the Labour government now appears committed to introducing a true system of feed-in tariffs by the end of 2010.
Alan Simpson, Labour MP, led debate in the House of Commons, taking issue not only with expected opposition to feed-in tariffs from electric utilities but also from the renewable energy industry itself. "On the record, many of the big energy suppliers have been fighting tooth and claw to prevent us from doing anything as bold and imaginative as we are doing. The Association of Electricity Producers had lobbied for a threshold of 50 kW. The British Wind Energy Association lobbied, until the last moment, for a threshold of 500 kW. Such demands would preclude the opportunity to develop genuine, transformational renewable energy systems on a community, town or city scale. The Secretary of State should be praised for his determination and willingness to push the boat out much further than many of those vested interests would have felt comfortable with."
Observers noted that no one rose in Commons to oppose final passage.
Conservative Party leaders put the ruling Labour Party on notice that if the feed-in tariff provisions didn't pass, they would support the policy in a subsequent Conservative Government.
Previously, Gordon Brown suffered an embarrassing back-bench revolt over the issue from his own party members.
The move by the British government has far reaching ramifications. The English speaking world has been more resistant to feed-in tariffs than non-English speaking countries, sometimes on ideological grounds, sometimes simply out of ignorance. Many North Americans, for example, attribute continental Europe's success with renewable energy to renewable portfolio standards, which is not the case.
Now that the British have clearly moved toward the camp favoring feed-in tariffs, there may be less reticence to do so elsewhere in the Anglophone world. |
| Source: Paul Gipe |
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Read More - Friends of the Earth: press release
Read more - Feed-in Tariffs in Britain: Ideological Breakthrough
Read more - Britain's Renewable Energy Association urges the government to adopt feed-in tariffs
Read More - Friends of the Earth Calls for British Feed-in Tariffs to meet Britain's Renewables target (2008) |
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| Higher Solar Feed-in Tariffs Part of Aggressive New French PV Program |
| Date: 17-Nov-2008 |
The French Minister for Energy and the Environment announced Monday that the government was launching an aggressive new program to propel the country to the forefront of solar energy development.
The announcement by Minister Jean-Louis Borloo was made at the annual Grenelle meeting of French environmental stakeholders. Minister Borloo outlined 50 actions the Sarkozy government would take to substantially increase the role of renewable energy in France.
As part of its commitment to the European Union, Borloo said that France will supply 23% of its energy with renewables by 2020.
Most dramatically, Borloo said that France intends to become one of the world's leaders in the development of solar photovoltaic technology and will increase the supply of solar-generated electricity 400 times by 2020.
To do that, France will create a new tariff category for commercial buildings of €0.45/kWh ($0.57 USD/kWh). This is intended to aid businesses, factories, and farmers to take profitable advantage of their large rooftops. As a measure of the government's seriousness, there will be no limit on the size of commercial rooftop projects that qualify for the tariff. For comparison, the French commercial tariff for 2009 is higher than that for Germany, the current world leader in solar PV development.
France has been a solar energy laggard in Europe. By mid 2008 there was only 18 MW of solar PV installed on the mainland. (France still maintains several overseas territories.) However, changes to the country's system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs (Tarife Equitable) in 2006 resulted in a flood of new projects. There is a huge backlog of some 12,000 systems representing 400 MW that are awaiting connection.
The government attributes the rapid growth to changes made to the tariffs for solar PV in 2006 when the government doubled the base feed-in tariff from €0.15 to €0.30 /kWh, the addition of another €0.25 /kWh for façade cladding, and the inclusion of a 50% tax credit for residential installations.
The residential market accounts for 40% of French installations. The typical project is about 3 kW.
Even with the backlog, France's development of solar PV is well behind Germany, Spain, and Italy and Borloo wants to change that.
The objective, Borloo said, is to install 5,400 MW by 2020, an increase of 400 times that of present installations.
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| Source: windworks.org |
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