On August 24^th, 2010, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision to launch a 1GW renewable energy pilot program for the US state of California. Through the program, which the CPUC describes as a feed-in tariff (FIT), California utilities would be required to purchase electricity from renewable energy generation sources between 1MW and 20MW. The CPUC will make a final decision on the policy, which has been applauded by the Vote Solar Initiative (San Francisco, California, US) and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC, Latham, New York, US), in as few as thirty days. "California has robust policies for developing large, utility-scale solar power plants and for putting smaller systems on homes and businesses, but there is a clear gap in the middle", noted Vote Solar Executive Director Adam Browning. "Yesterday’s CPUC proposal is designed to unlock that missing piece, providing an additional opportunity for solar market and job growth and for quickly bringing massive new amounts of clean energy to the state."

CPUC feed-in tariff policy differs from European approaches

The CPUC's approach to a feed-in tariff differs from European models of FIT policies. Instead of setting prices for electricity produced from various renewable energy sources at variable scales, the CPUC's FIT is based on a bidding mechanism which it calls a Renewable Auction Mechanism. Utilities are still required to purchase electricity from renewable energy sources, but can choose the lowest price offered by electricity producers.

In doing so, Vote Solar and IREC say the CPUC may have created a mechanism that does not violate legal requirements whereby states do not have the right to set wholesale electricity rates which exceed the very low "avoided cost" estimates of utilities. Such prohibitions in the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA) were upheld in a July 2010 ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which could potentially stop the development of feed-in tariffs in the United States.

Another reason that Vote Solar and the IREC have praised the decision is that it addresses a scale of generation which is strategically important to greater adoption of renewables. The CPUC has identified transmission as the single greatest barrier to renewable energy adoption; however this proposed program will increase renewable energy generation at scales that can be incorporated into existing grid infrastructure without a need for substantial new transmission.

2010-08-30| Courtesy: Vote Solar, IREC | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

Our editorial selection of breaking solar news is published at:
www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/top-solar-news.html