Concepts
Feed-in Tariff
Also Known As FIT
Policy Concept
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A feed-in tariff is an energy policy mechanism that accelerates investment in renewable generation by offering producers a long term contract at a guaranteed, cost based price for every unit of electricity they feed into the grid, with priority grid access and a tariff that steps down over time as technology costs fall. The United States took an early step toward the mechanism in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed the National Energy Act, whose Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act required utilities to buy power from qualifying independent producers at the utility's own avoided cost. Germany adopted a feed-in law of its own, the Stromeinspeisungsgesetz, in 1990, and restructured it in 2000 into the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the fixed price, technology differentiated model that became the international benchmark that many countries since have copied or adapted.
Facts
Disputed
Formulated YearThe US Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, signed in 1978, functioned as the first feed-in-tariff-like mechanism under another name; the first law formally named a feed-in tariff was Germany's 1990 Stromeinspeisungsgesetz (StrEG), so which year counts as the concept's true founding is a genuine naming dispute, not a settled date. Concept Domain Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationDescriptionQuote, Description
Under a FIT, eligible renewable electricity generators are paid a cost-based price for the renewable electricity they supply to the grid.
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationHistory, United StatesQuote, History, United States
The first form of feed-in tariff was implemented in the US in 1978 under President Jimmy Carter, who signed the National Energy Act (NEA).
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationHistory, EuropeQuote, History, Europe
In 1990, Germany adopted its 'Stromeinspeisungsgesetz' (StrEG), or 'Law on Feeding Electricity into the Grid'.
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationFeed-in tariff, historyQuote, Feed-in tariff, history
The first form of feed-in tariff (under another name) was implemented in the US in 1978 under President Jimmy Carter, who signed the National Energy Act (NEA).
United States Energy Information Administration Official Site
US Energy Information AdministrationToday in Energy, Feed-in tariff policy in GermanyQuote, Today in Energy, Feed-in tariff policy in Germany
The German government has supported renewable electricity growth by promising a fixed, above-market price for every kilowatthour of energy generated by solar PV or wind.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Formulated Year
Many energy-policy historians and IRENA/IEA-style policy retrospectives credit Germany's 1990 Stromeinspeisungsgesetz, refined in 2000 into the Renewable Energy Sources Act, as the first true feed-in tariff: a fixed, technology-differentiated, cost-based price guaranteed to the producer. The 1978 US Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, cited elsewhere as the earliest step, instead required utilities to pay independent producers the utility's own avoided cost, a market-referenced rate rather than a cost-based, technology-specific tariff, so this dissent holds that PURPA was a precursor mechanism rather than a feed-in tariff proper.
A dissenting reading, from European renewable-energy policy scholarshipWikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation
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