The German feed-in-tariff program has been the motivating force that has led to an installed capacity of 26.5 GW of solar PV power in Germany and has been widely emulated in other countries. Recently Germany revised its pricing. It appears that tariffs will be reduced by 25% for installations with 40 kW – 1 MW peak capacity.
The Ontario Power Authority (OPA) has released revised rules and prices for latest version of Ontario’s feed-in-tariff program (MicroFIT V2). The microFIT (micro feed-in-tariff) program is designed for homeowners, farmers, small business owners, schools, and religious institutions that allows them to develop a small (100 kW or less capacity) renewable electricity power generation project and get paid for the electricity generated at favourable rates for the next 20 years (40 years for water projects). Technologies include solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, wind, water power, biomass, bio gas, and landfill gas.
The new rates are considerably reduced compared to the previous rates. For example, for a small (<10kW) rooftop solar PV array, the previous rate was 80 cents/kWh. The new rate is 54.9 cents/kWh, 37% less.
This reflects in part the lower cost of PV arrays, the price of which has declined considerably. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab the average installed cost of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2010 fell by roughly 17 percent from 2009, and by an additional 11 percent within the first six months of 2011. These installed cost reductions are due in part to dramatic reductions in the price of PV modules.
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