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On November 22, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC) approved the third tier of island state's feed-in tariff for systems up to 5 MW in size on the island of Oahu and 2.72 MW in size on Maui and Hawaii.
PV and CSP systems eligible for the feed-in tariff must not be larger than 5 MW or 1% of the participating utility's peak load on its system. Tiers 1 and 2 were approved in October 2010.
The rates to be paid for PV generation are well below retail electric rates in the state of Hawaii, which have averaged €0.75/kWh for residential users and USD €0.75/kWh for commercial users in 2011 to date.
Accion Group, which serves as the independent observer for the feed-in tariff, released a report in December 2010 which showed that only 2.6 MW of applications for PV systems to participate in the program had been filed under tier 1 and tier 2. The program also received poor ratings by international organizations, including the World Future Council.
Hawaii's FiT program offers pre-set rates and standardized contract terms for selling renewable electricity to the grid via utility Hawaiian Electric. The rates set for FiTs vary by size of project and by the technology being used and run for a term of 20 years. The program will accept enough projects to provide up to 60MW total capacity on Oahu, 10MW on Hawaii Island and 10MW in Maui County.
The FiT has been under development in Hawaii since a 2008 clean energy agreement between the state and utilities, and aim to help the state reach its target to generate 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Hawaii has had a net metering program in place for projects up to 10kW since 2001 and 50kW since 2004, where homes and businesses could offset some of their utility bills with power they generate on-site. The FiT program is being overseen by New Hampshire-based consultancy Accion Group, on behalf of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.
Los Angeles City Council: The council has voted through a measure that will allow the city to launch a trial scheme for new solar installations.
The vote gives the city's Department of Water and Power (LADWP) the freedom to move forward with its proposed CLEAN LA Solar Program, which promises to support up to 10MW of solar PV capacity with feed-in tariff incentives that will provide installations with guaranteed payments based on how much energy they generate.
The small-scale trial will support projects with up to 3MW of capacity, providing installations with payments of up to €0.228/kWh.
Palo Alto County Council: On March 5, Palo Alto County Council voted in a pilot feed-in tariff programme: the Palo Alto CLEAN (Clean Local Energy Accessible Now). In 2012, there will be a minimum project size of 100kW. The City of Palo Alto Utilities will sign PPAs for facilities generating a total of 4MW.
The purchase prices the city will pay are:
* 20-year contract: 14.003 ¢/kWh
* 15-year contract: 13.216 ¢/kWh
* 10-year contract: 12.360 ¢/kWh
Applications will be accepted from April 2, 2012. Contracts will be awarded at the end of each month, with the first contracts awarded on May 1, 2012.
The California FiT was amended by legislation on October 11, 2009, to take effect January 1, 2010; however the amendments will not be incorporated into the actual program until the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) develops regulations to implement the program changes. As of September 2010, these rules have not been adopted, and the CPUC is currently considering significant changes to the program. The information presented below discusses the FiT as amended by the 2009 legislation.
The California FiT allows eligible customer-generators to enter into 10-, 15- or 20-year standard contracts with their utilities to sell the electricity produced by small renewable energy systems -- up to 3MW -- at time-differentiated market-based prices.
All investor-owned utilities and publicly-owned utilities with 75,000 or more customers must make a standard FiT available to their customers. The tariffs will be available until the combined statewide cumulative capacity of eligible generation installed equals 750MW. Each utility will be responsible for a portion of that cumulative total based on their proportionate sales.
Florida caused a bit of a stir when solar came to town as it was the first state to adopt a European style feed-in tariff model. This FiT was introduced in Gainseville in 2009 and is different to other state's systems as it pays out for energy produced, not just that which is fed back into the grid. The tariff is based on the cost to develop the renewable generation project, plus a stipulated 5-6% return.
New Jersey has a mid-range feed-in tariff rate of €0.23/kWh which is not as much as many other states. Although the tariff rate is low, the installation rate is rising. The reason for this could possibly be down to the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires 22.5% of residents’ utility power to come from renewables by 2021.
The state of Rhode Island offers a more complex feed-in tariff system compared to most U.S. states. This means that it has a different FiT rate for each type of solar installation; ground based, roof based and building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). These rates are all for installations which are less than 30kW and are €0.46/kWh, €0.46/kWh and €0.50/kWh respectively.
Washington State has passed a voluntary FiT legislation which could provide residents with a maximum rebate of €0.50/kWh. This policy has been around for about two to three years and has enjoyed some success.
