Gainesville, Florida may soon have the most progressive solar incentive
program in the nation, based on a plan proposed by the Gainesville
Regional Utilities (GRU) on Monday to buy electricity produced by
customer-owned solar power systems at above market values.
Inspired by Germany’s successful feed-in tariff, the GRU has
offered to buy all electricity produced by solar systems for the next
20 years at a price that would make solar competitive, "if not
profitable," according to The Gainesville Sun.
The Gainsville City Commission has expressed its support and asked the GRU to draft an ordinance for a commission vote.
"This is really a historic moment," said Kellyn Eberhardt, Florida
climate project associate with the Environmental Defense Fund, told The Sun.
"This is the first time in North America that a municipally owned
utility is considering a feed-in-tariff policy. These are big strides
and a lot of eyes are upon you to see what will happen."
GRU’s current incentive system offers a cash rebate of $1.50 per watt
of photovoltaic panel installed. The incentive is capped at $7,500 for
residential units and $37,500 for businesses. Solar power owners also
can sell excess energy back to the grid through net-metering.
Feed-in-tariff incentives would eliminate the cash rebate and
net-metering. Instead, GRU would buy all of the power produced by the
solar panels at a fixed price that could make solar ownership
profitable, and may encourage outside investment, according to Ed
Regan, assistant general manager for GRU strategic planning.
GRU said the cost of the program would be handled through the
fuel adjustment rates passed along to customers. Regan told the city
commission the increase would be "negligible."
Assuming that one megawatt of solar photovoltaics were installed
every year for the next 20 years the increase in the fuel adjustment
per customer would be less than 1% by 2029, The Sun reported.
Read the full report.
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