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BBC News - 12/07/09
Households that contribute electricity to the National Grid are to receive payments under a new government scheme.
Towns and villages will be encouraged to generate their own power with wind, water and solar energies, and then be paid for how much they produce.
Called clean energy cash-back, schemes already operate in 19 European countries including Germany.
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Basically, by bringing the 'payback times' of all technologies down to time periods that bean-counters can understand, the micro-renewables industry should go ballistic. Or rather, it would, if anyone had any money to invest in the first place!The Government has announced yesterday the details of the proposed feed-in tariff for microgeneration from systems like small wind turbines and solar photovoltaics. The new tariff will pay for all energy generated by your system, irrespective of if you use it yourself or sell it back to the grid. The amounts paid are in addition to any saving you will make by purchasing less electricity from your supplier and any income you earn from selling your surplus power to your electricity supplier.
The key points of the announcement are:
- 36.5p/kWh for small solar photovoltaic systems up to 4kW and 28p/kWh for systems up to 10kW.
- 23.0p/kWh for small wind turbines between 1.5kW and 15kW.
- Replaces the current ROC system which pays 10p/kWh.
- Effective as of the 1st April 2010, but all systems commissioned from now on will qualify.
- Systems installed from now until April 2010 will be eligible for both LCBP grants AND the new tariff.
A typical home solar photovoltaic system of 3kW, generating approximately 2,300kWh per annum will therefore earn around £1,000 per annum, which is an additional £600, dramatically reducing payback times.
An Evance Iskra R9000 small wind turbine will typically earn £2,000 - £3,000 per annum which is an additional £1,000.
A Gaia 133 small wind turbine installed at a modestly windy site will earn £6,000 - £9,000 per annum which is an additional £3,000, making it a very economic proposition with likely payback times of less than 5 years on a typical site.
The new tariff will pay for all electricity generated by your system, irrespective of if you use it yourself or sell it back to the grid. The amounts paid are in addition to any saving you will make by purchasing less electricity from your supplier and any income you earn from selling your surplus power to your electricity supplier.
The key points of the announcement are:
- 36.5p/kWh for small solar photovoltaic systems up to 4kW and 28p/kWh for systems up to 10kW.
- 23.0p/kWh for small wind turbines between 1.5kW and 15kW.
- Replaces the current ROC system which pays 10p/kWh.
- Effective as of the 1st April 2010, but all systems commissioned from now on will qualify.
- Systems installed from now until April 2010 will be eligible for both LCBP grants AND the new tariff.
A typical home solar photovoltaic system of 3kW, generating approximately 2,300kWh per annum will therefore earn around £1,000 per annum, which is an additional £600, dramatically reducing payback times.
As fully accredited Microgeration Certification Scheme Installers, any photovoltaic system installed by SunGift Solar from today onwards will qualify for the feed-in tariff.
Following this announcement we are expecting a huge rise in demand so to ensure that you can make the most of the £2,500 LCBP grant currently available and the new feed-in tariff please contact us as soon as possible!
I agree completely, microgeneration has to be part of the solution and the feed-in tariffs are a great idea. Unfortunately, I don't fully trust governments (regardless of flavour/fervor) to manage to actually come up with and implement anything like a workable/practical, combined energy strategy until it's far too late. Fingers crossed I'm proved wrong, but I ain't holdin' my breath.RGR wrote:You know, I like the local microgeneration idea quite a bit. I consider it quite a reasonable way to incentive-ize what is a completely reasonable overall energy solution.
Much like the idea that all politics is local, it strikes me as reasonable that quite a bit of energy production can and should be local, optimized to each areas strengths, allowing strong energy regions to export their excess to other areas, much like how oil is traded globally.
In the US, the desert southwest can be a solar powerhouse exporter to southern California, the coastal regions and the central plains have more wind than they know what to do with, winds and tides are plentiful along the coasts, nukes and hydro can be sprinkled liberally into areas with wind or solar disadvantages, and of course there is always the odd century or three of natural gas to use either as a stopgap, or, under a reduced supply scenario, a resource which can last a millennium for those places which just can't figure out what to do.
Yeah, cheers for that.Reasonable for the US anyway, considering the dearth of natural resources in the UK, you guys are basically going to be hosed.
RGR wrote:Of course, as an American I would volunteer that all the smart ones left centuries ago.
How is Boone-Pickens getting on with his "biggest windfarm, in the world"?RGR wrote:the central plains have more wind than they know what to do with, winds and tides are plentiful along the coasts