Earth Equity News

Vermont's Feed-In Tariff Get Strong Response. By Dave Gram, AP, October 21, 2009. "Vermont recently established a program that sets guaranteed prices for energy produced at plants powered by the sun, wind, water and methane gas as a way to encourage developers to build them. When bids were opened on October 19, officials had proposals to provide more than four times the amount of renewable energy that they had wanted. 'I'm absolutely delighted that what the Legislature intended has been delivered beyond my wildest imagination,' said Rep. Tony Klein. The East Montpelier Democrat chairs the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee and was a key architect of the legislation that created the program... [which] set up 'feed-in tariffs' -- set prices to be paid by utilities when developers feed various types of renewable energy into the grid. The object, Klein and other supporters said, was to set a steady price for power the developer would get for 20 years to ensure they would recoup their investments. Prices ranged from 12 cents per kilowatt-hour for power made by burning methane from landfills up to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar power... The first round of bids opened produced 196 proposals for solar power and fewer than 15 for each of the five other technologies."