In a nutshell, a feed in tariff is a sustainable means by which anyone (person, business) can generate power from green sources and is guaranteed access to sell it on the grid at a guaranteed rate for a nice long contract.
For a more detailed description look at this wiki on feed in tariffs and to see what Ontario has done which has spurred massive industry growth in all levels of business and benefitted millions of people take a look at Canada’s first major feed in tariff right here.
The rates for new contracts go down slightly as the years go on and energy prices rise, and the cost to everyone is offset by the reductions overall and by spreading it so far. Its brilliant and has worked wonders around the world as it is currently doing in Ontario. Essentially, a homeowner with a respectable and affordably sized system stands to generate 50 to 80% of their entire families energy needs (assuming 4 people and average usage) PLUS get a cheque every month for about 450 dollars. That is not chump change, and talk about taking strain off an overworked energy grid!
The city of Edmonton is creating a Renewable energy task force, which I mentioned before (hence the dragon reference) and spoke to council about. Part of the duty or mandate of that task force should be to help bring about a feed in tariff for Alberta. Our province has little to no shade issues, extremely good sun exposure year round (better than Australia or Germany for solar energy production capacity), and a workforce suitable to turn this whole damn tar sands anchored place green while making everyone bloody well rich in the process. (Not to mention ending the boom/bust cycle we’ve been saddled with ever since conservatives took power almost 40 years ago)
My presentation that day led to my getting a private meeting on March 25th with Mayor Stephen Mandel where I intend to discuss the many benefits the city will reap under a FIT program and how important the role of cities has become in Canada lately, which opens up many new opportunities with new forms of governance and interaction.
I will do some legwork before hand and will be discussing the citizens interest in and support for this program. I wrote a letter (see the file download box on the left sidebar) that I encourage all Edmontonians to print, sign with their neighbors or alone, and mail to their city council member. People in other cities please feel free to emulate it making changes are required.
The letter explains to council and the mayor that a feed in tariff is the best way to level the playing field and allow everyone to participate in green economic growth and investment. It outlines a few core values that we can all support and tells council that we need them to represent us on this. Please comment and let me know what you think…
Please see below a few examples of solar on homes and a school, and even one gas station! Click to enlarge.
WordPress Tags: Mayor,Edmonton,tariff,person,grid,description,Ontario,industry,growth,Canada,rates,energy,cost,world,homeowner,system,needs,usage,PLUS,chump,Renewable,task,council,Part,Alberta,province,exposure,Australia,Germany,production,workforce,cycle,presentation,March,Stephen,Mandel,benefits,role,governance,interaction,legwork,letter,Edmontonians,member,People,investment,Click,tariffs,reductions,examples
9 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
[...] proven effective everywhere on earth it’s been tried. For more basic information on what it is, take a look here at what I’ve been doing to help bring them in locally. We currently have a shot, as Edmonton city council is studying a plan to encourage renewable energy [...]
[...] Step 2: Get into the halls of power, go directly to the top if possible. [...]
[...] Ontario has a feed in tariff and I’ve begun helping Edmonton towards starting a municipal version. Medicine hat has cash incentives for renewable energy [...]
[...] not being heard by the big government so all the little governments are taking the initiative! See here for a quick note on what a feed in tariff is and why its [...]
[...] FIT – Feed In Tariff & Renewable energy comes to Nova Scotia! We’re winning… slowly. As you may know, I have been working hard to get the Alberta government (through municipal involvement at the city of Edmonton) to study and implement a FIT program to encourage massive adoption of renewable energy into our grid. Ontario led the way in Canada, and now Nova Scotia has followed suit (somewhat). My past blog posts explaining the process can be found by starting with this one. [...]
[...] It went AWESOME. My presentation scored, I hit the right points and we managed to arrive at an understanding of what a FIT basically is and that it is a great idea. (For more info on a FIT/Feed-In Tariff see here for my original post) [...]
[...] Meeting with the mayor of Edmonton tomorrow! Followed by my provincial MLA the next day. (See my previous post for what this is about) [...]
[...] For a bit more info on what a FIT is please see this post over here. [...]
[...] the way to a private meeting with Mayor Mandel on March 25. He runs his own blog and you can read his post about meeting with the mayor regarding feed-in tariffs here. "The city of Edmonton is creating a Renewable energy task force, which I mentioned before and [...]