Have You Heard the News? Feed-In-Tariffs in CA! by Matt from 1BOG

Last week was historic for residential solar and wind energy producers in California.  Governor Arnold Schwarenegger signed legislation that will compel California public utilities to pay homeowners for any excess power that they generate. This compulsory payment is called a feed-in tariff and along with state rebates and federal tax incentives, it is meant to spur solar adoption across the state by making solar more affordable and attractive than ever.

Feed-in tariffs have been used by many other counties and a few other states in the US. One of the best places to look at the power of feed-in tariffs is Japan. In a month or so, Japan will begin paying customers for excess electricity. According to reporter Rob Schmitz of the California Report, “nearly half a million homes in Japan already have solar panels, and news of the new feed-in tariff has spurred 50,000 households to install solar panels in the past six months; that’s more than the total number of homes in California that have solar panels, period.“ We can only hope that the feed-in tariffs signed into law will have that same effect on Californians.

Although the Governor has signed the feed-in tariffs into law, all of the details have not been ironed out. The actual dollar amount that excess electricity producers will be paid for the energy remains a mystery as do the exact guidelines to how this plan will be administered. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until 2011 for the bill to take effect to find out exactly how the feed-in tariffs will pan out. No matter what happens, it is certainly a step in the right direction and will keep California at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution.

Photo credit: about.com