July 21st, 2010 ~ An Evening of Inspiration 6:00 to 8:00 pm ~ Boulder, CO at UMC on CU Campus
July 22nd, 2010 ~ Workshop on Feed-In Tariffs 9:00 to 5:00 pm ~ Boulder, CO at UMC on CU Campus
"The fact that Feed-In Tariffs (FITs) are simple, fair, and effective is the reason that they are responsible for the vast majority of renewable energy that has been deployed in the world.” Craig Lewis, Founder of FIT Coalition.
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FITs are fixed price, long-term contracts that require a utility to buy electricity produced by renewable energy generators.
There are many reasons why Feed-In Tariffs (FITs) are the most successful renewable energy (RE) incentive in the world. Here are a just a few:
JOB CREATION*. All levels of jobs are created including high-skilled positions in engineering, manufacturing, agriculture, and electronics.
SIMPLICITY. One important reason FITs have been so successful is their simplicity. With FITs, when anyone generates power from a RE system that is passed through to their local grid, the utility company cuts them a check!
STABILITY & INVESTMENT SECURITY. This is because the incentives are fixed for long time horizons, typically 20 years, which provides a guaranteed revenue stream that can be borrowed against easily. Unlike Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) which have annually fluctuating values through a trading mechanism, FIT incentives never change and never require any administration or additional cost.
STAY-AT-HOME REVENUE. With FITs, the revenue from producing renewable energy will stay in the state or province where it is produced. This will create "local wealth" and stimulate the local economy.
EQUALITY. FITs create a level playing field for all different sizes of renewable energy producers. It encourages individuals, small businesses and larger businesses to become RE producers and rewards them all.
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Want to understand how to adopt FIT policy in your community? Join us at our upcoming events!
Here are some of the experts we have on hand:
R. James Woolsey, Former CIA Director will talk about FIT Policy and Distributed Generation from the standpoint of energy security and energy independence.
Pegeen Hanrahan - Former Mayor of Gainesville, FL (she was term-limited) and pioneer of adopting first FIT policy in the US. She's been on the ground doing the work and will share lessons learned and how it's proven to be a economic driver for their city.
Craig Lewis - Founder of the FIT Coalition who knows the ins and outs of FIT policy adoption at the local, state and national level. He can open just about any policymaker's mind to the unparalleled benefits of FITs (pun intended).
Toby Couture - Energy Analyst and author of recent National Renewable Energy Lab report, "The PolicyMakers' Guide to FIT Policy Design". It's being touted as the most comprehensive analysis of feed-in tariff policies. Are you skeptical of the promises above? Come ask Toby.
Janet Gagnon - Esq, Head of Government Relations for SolarWorld and Board Member for CoSEIA. She really knows her stuff about FITs and why this all makes good business sense.
Susan Perkins - Legal expert on energy. Ms. Perkins is especially interested in encouraging distributed generation and advocating for local energy autonomy. She is a member of the Boulder Climate Action Network as Boulder continues to show national leadership in the development of innovative energy policies. Says it all.
Come join us. Only way this happens is to get educated!
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*On July 7, 2010 University of California, Berkeley published an analysis on adopting a Feed-In Tariff policy in California with the following summary of economic benefits:
- Creates three times the number of jobs from 2011-2020.
- Increases direct state revenues by an estimated $1.7 billion.
- Stimulates up to $50 billion in total new investment in the state.
- Provides a highly cost-effective avenue to assist in California's efforts to achieve the 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) target by 2020.
- Click here for full report