Feed In Tariff

Financial incentives for installing new wind turbines will be increased from April 2010. Following the recent Energy Act (2008) the UK Government plan to implement a new ‘feed-in tariff’ initiative designed to encourage the use of renewable energy among UK property owners and small businesses, which is great news for anyone thinking about installing a Gaia Wind Turbine. In effect, the tariff will provide a 14p/unit increase from the existing incentive which can result in an earning of up to £9000 annually, depending on wind speeds, an increase of £3,000 on the previous incentive scheme.

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Government Incentive

Following the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) publication, ‘Consultation on Renewable Energy Financial Incentives’, the financial reward for installing a small wind turbine will be greatly increased. Following the ‘Feed-In Tariff’ model which has proven so successful around Western Europe, the Government will launch the ‘Clean Energy Cash Back’ program in order to stimulate residential investment in renewable energy sources. At the heart of the scheme is a ‘total generation tariff’ of 23p/unit for all renewable electricity generated from small wind turbines in the 1.5-15kW range. This incentive will replace the carbon credit (ROC) scheme for small wind turbines, which is currently worth circa 9p/unit. Additionally the turbine owner will be able to sell any additional electricity back the grid, as well as reducing their own energy bills.

Financial implications

A Gaia-Wind turbine in the UK can typically generate between 30,000 and 40,000 units of green electricity a year, which results in a significant financial gain. In economic terms the new tariff equates to an earning of around £6000-£9000 per year, £3000 more than the previous incentive, and significantly reduces the payback period of a Gaia Wind Turbine to below 5 years.

Degression

Degression has been factored into the new Feed In Tariffs. Basically this reward first-movers, and from April 2012, the FIT will be reduced by 3%. But in you install you system before then the tariff you get is fixed at the time the system is installed and then adjusted only for inflation (upwards only), as will the export tariff. It's only systems installed in future years which get a lower tariff.

Existing Systems

These systems remain ineligible, except those transferring from the Renewables Obligation (at the fixed rate of 9p/kWh). The government has also ruled out refurbished and re-commissioned systems from being eligible. The rationale is that the actual hardware may have recieved grant assistance previously through its life.

Final Feed-in Tariff levels