Questions about the US feed in tariffs

germanwindenergy

Hi there,
I am currently writing a paper on the risks of wind farms comparing the situation in the us and germany. I am a German native and I seem to be having some trouble finding legitimate information about the feed in tariff laws and policies in the us. Maybe some of you can give me a hand...

So far i've only found information about the production tax credit policy and that there are additional subsidies that differ in each state. But i couldn't figure out how much the subsidies are. there are so many different pages all giving different values. Quite frankly it's a bit confusing.

So...considering I am going to invest in a wind farm in California and operate it myself. what kind of governmental support could i expect if there is any? Would there be like a certain amount the government repays for each kWh that is induced into the power grid ?

I hope you can help me.
Greetings from Germany

BB.

I am not sure that you will ever get a simple set of numbers regarding wind (or really any large energy project). Much of the economics revolved around subsides and favorable tax treatments (depreciation taxes, development breaks, higher rates paid by utilities to "green energy suppliers", etc.).

Roughly, some current numbers seem to be around $0.023 per kWH for subsidies, and around $0.03 to $0.05 for direct payments for kWH production).

And in the last few years, direct (tax subsides) and indirect (increased payments by utilities and customers for green power) have been disappearing. Although, there is a federal government proposal to make some tax subsidies permanent (currently they are renewed, or not, every few years and attached to projects for the year they are built).

In the end, much of this revolves around lobbying by large companies (for and against) and various other groups. As an individual, I am not sure you would be politically connected enough to get subsidies rates from power company, transmission lines, environmental approvals, permits, and tax breaks.

-Bill

inetdog

One serious problem is that in the US there is no uniform policy on feed-in tariffs for Renewable Energy (RE).
Laws vary from state to state and even among cites, and each Power Company (POCO) is free to set its own rules within the limits enacted by the state where it does business.

There is a general federal policy of encouraging Net Metering for residential scale RE, but even that is in practice subject to state and local variations.

unseenone

This is along the line of what you may be asking for. An RFP for Solar, and some other information, which is local to the area to Austin, TX. There is a lot of other data there as well. As previously stated, it's State and Local mostly, with Federal subsidies at times.

Solar Power Purchase Request For Proposal

Renewable Power Generation

2014 Generation Resource Planning - Significantly renewables account for 26% with solar being dead last.

peakbagger

This site is useful for researching various state by state incentives. Renewable developers chase the tariffs which can vary by each utility so the incentives can vary inside a state.

http://www.dsireusa.org/

Dave Angelini

As a german citizen, would he be eligible for the 30% federal credit? I guess no, but ?

BB.

I would guess yes--If he pays US Taxes on US Income.

-Bill