Alliance for Renewable Energy

CIVIL SOCIETY INSTITUTE STUDY: U.S. COULD ACHIEVE OVER $80 BILLION IN LOWER ENERGY COSTS BY FOCUSING ON SAFER, RENEWABLE ENERGY

Civil Society Institute

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 16, 2011 – It is a myth that switching to safe, renewable energy would mean an unreliable U.S. power supply that also is too expensive to afford. That is the major conclusion of a new Synapse Energy Economics report prepared for the nonprofit Civil Society Institute (CSI) that details a future with more energy efficiency and renewable energy and less reliance on coal and nuclear power. Titled "Toward a Sustainable Future for the U.S. Power Sector: Beyond Business as Usual 2011," new Synapse/CSI report outlines a realistic transition to a cleaner energy future that would result in a net savings of $83 billion over the next 40 years. The Synapse report also details other major benefits, including: the avoidance of tens of thousands of premature deaths due to pollution; the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs; sharp cuts in carbon pollution; and significant cuts in water consumption for power production.

Read the 11.16.11 Civil Society Institute news release here.
Read the 11.16.11 Synapse Energy Economics report here.
After 5 p.m. EST on 11.16.11, listen to the streaming audio of the CSI news event.
Read about the related 11.3.11 CSI national opinion survey here.

How Germany Became Europe’s Green Leader

Cyclists on Freiburg's car-free Wiwili bridge. The bridge was closed

to cars in the early 2000s and is now open only to cyclists and

pedestrians. Photo by Ralph Buehler.

October 24, 2011

Ralph Buehler, Arne Jungjohann,

Melissa Keeley, Michael Mehling

This article examines how German environmental policymaking over the last 40 years transformed Europe’s economic engine into the international driver of green growth. By examining Germany’s environmental policy development in the energy, infrastructure and transportation sectors, transferable lessons are gleaned that may help the US pave its own green policy agenda.

Feed-in Tariffs Best to Deal with Climate Change Says IPCC Working Group III Renewables

FITs Least Costly--Most Competitive Mechanism Says Climate Researchers

November 8, 2011

By Paul Gipe

The 135-page report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , especially Chapter 11 on Policy, Financing and Implementation, makes it clear that the overwhelming weight of academic studies conclude that feed-in tariffs--or fixed-price mechanisms--perform better at delivering renewable energy quickly and equitably than quota systems, such as Renewable Portfolio Standards in the US or the Renewable Obligation in Britain. This is not the unsurprising conclusion from a surprising source: the IPCC's Working Group III on Renewables.

Below are selected excerpts illustrating the theme that runs through the report.

Page 5

Several studies have concluded that some feed-in tariffs have been effective and efficient at promoting RE electricity,

Snapshot of Feed-in Tariffs around the World in 2011

Updated Tables of Feed-in Tariffs Worldwide

Summary of Prices for Wind, Solar, Geothermal, & Other Technologies

October 5, 2011

By Paul Gipe

Feed-in tariffs are the world's most popular renewable energy policy mechanism. Despite the economic recession, more and more jurisdictions are turning to feed-in tariffs to spur not only renewable energy development but also industrial development and the attendant jobs that it creates.

The following article is a snapshot of places where feed-in tariffs are being used, and the prices that are being paid. While extensive, this article is not comprehensive. It does not include every tariff for every technology in every jurisdiction, but it does give a flavor for the widespread use of this policy mechanism with the odd name.

More than 80 jurisdictions around the world now use or have used feed-in tariffs to pay for new renewable generation, according to a recent report by REN 21. These vary from former Eastern Bloc countries, such as Slovenia and Bulgaria, to developing countries, such as Uganda and Mongolia, to the more well known examples of Germany and France.

According to the Renewables 2011 Global Status Report, feed-in tariffs now dominate policy for renewable energy worldwide. There are 60% more jurisdictions (states, provinces, and entire countries) using feed-in tariffs than are now using quota systems (Renewable Portfolio Standards, Renewable Energy Standards, and so on).

Rhode Island Posts Proposed Tariffs--Meets Deadline

October 3, 2011

By Paul Gipe

In record time, the government of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has posted proposed feed-in tariffs for renewable energy.

Only signed into law by Governor Lincoln Chafee on 29 June, 2011, Rhode Island determined a methodology for calculating the tariffs, held four public hearings, and posted their findings by the statutory deadline at the end of September.

Rhode Island's fast action should allay any further hand wringing by North Americans that calculating feed-in tariffs is difficult and time consuming.

Rhode Island becomes only the second state in the Northeast to implement a feed-in tariff program and one of the few states in the US to do so.

The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources managed the expedited process and filed their recommendations September 27, 2011 in compliance with the law.

• Docket No. 4288 - RI Office of Energy Resources - Report and Recommendation Regarding Classes and Ceiling Prices for 2011 submitted pursuant to "The Distributed Generation Standard Contracts Act" (filed 9/27/11)
• Rhode Island Rapidly Implementing Feed-in Tariffs for Distributed Generation

 

State Level Feed in Tariff and Federal Preemption Papers released

Jennifer Gleason of ELAW (Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide), and the Alliance for Renewable Energy has finished two exceptional papers on the issues of state level Feed-in Tariffs.

The first paper, Adopting State Feed-in Tariff Laws without Federal Preemption  is intended to help renewable energy advocates understand the concerns about federal preemption and understand possible paths forward for states to adopt robust FITs that are not preempted.

The second, accompanying paper Available Paths for Designing Strong State Feed in Tariffs is intended to provide sample language that could be used by states to implement a Feed-in Tariff that should not be preempted by federal law.  This language only addresses how the rates would be set.

Harvesting Clean Energy on Ontario Farms. A Transatlantic Comparison

With Harvesting Clean Energy on Ontario Farms. A Transatlantic Comparison, the Heinrich Boell Foundation just released a new report on how renewables energies provide benefits for rural communities and what steps need to be taken to engage more farmers in renewable energy production. Some farmers in northern Germany make $2.5 million in a good year growing wheat. They make $15 million harvesting the wind, as the Ottawa Citizen reports.

What Feed-in Tariffs Could Do for Japan's Electricity Shortage

 

What Japan Could Do if It Followed Germany's Lead on Renewable Energy

Within one Decade Japan Could Halve its Dependence on Nuclear Power

April 14, 2011

By Paul Gipe

If Japan adopted an aggressive renewable energy policy like that of Germany, it could, within ten years, generate more than four times the electricity lost at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, cutting the country's reliance on nuclear power by one-half or more.

As Japan expands the evacuation zone around the damaged Fukushima 1 nuclear plant from 20 km to 30 km and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) skirts the edge of bankruptcy, the country confronts a stark choice: undertake a massive construction program to replace the nuclear reactors with more of the same, or, instead, follow a new, less risky, and potentially more strategic path toward rapid renewable energy development. The stakes are high and the fight is already intense as Japanese elites debate the future of their electricity system, and literally, the future of their country.

New Record for German Renewable Energy in 2010

 

One-Quarter Million New Solar-Electric Systems Installed

New World Record: 7,400 MW of Solar Photovoltaics Installed in One Year

Renewable Electricity Penetration More than 30% of Supply on February 7th

New Renewables Near 17% of Electricity Supply

Renewable Generation Greater than Natural Gas--Closing in on Nuclear

March 24, 2011

By Paul Gipe

As the nuclear reactor accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant continues to dominate the world's attention, Germany has quietly broken more renewable energy records.

The conservative government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, struggling to stay ahead of public attitudes toward nuclear power in the run-up to regional elections, issued its annual report on the contribution of renewable energy to the German energy market in 2010.

Wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, solar cells, and biogas digesters now provide nearly 17% of Germany's electricity.

Meanwhile, the German network agency (Bundesnetzagentur) issued its final update on the installation of solar photovoltaics (solar PV) in 2010.

The results are nothing short of startling and will add fuel to the heated debate about how countries such as Japan can meet their electricity needs without reliance on nuclear power.

Who Invented the Solar Feed-in Tariff (FIT)? --Or What We Can Learn From Aachen's Success in Harnessing Clean Energy

March 24, 2011

by Bob Johnstone

 

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The following is an excerpt from Bob Johnstone's new book Switching to Solar.

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The solar industry is booming. During the past decade PV shipments have grown by three orders of magnitude. In 2010 shipments were up over a hundred percent on 2009.

How to account for this explosive growth? Though success has a thousand fathers, most analysts agree that the trigger was Germany's solar feed-in tariff, first enacted in 2000 then turbocharged in 2004.

Who deserves the credit for this extraordinarily effective policy mechanism? That was my question when I began research for my book, Switching to Solar. In November 2007 I flew to Germany to find the answer.