Feed-In Tariffs in Europe

The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) is an bonus devised to repay the production of renewable energy both by households and investors. Power companies are forced to purchase back, at rates higher than the market, power coming from renewable sources; such as wind, thermal solar, photovoltaic solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal. This tariff is also named Feed-in Law, Solar Premium, Renewable Tariff or Renewable Energy Payments. FIT helps make the production of renewable energy economically viable. Usually governments assure the tariff for up to 15, 20 or even 25 years from the date of the setup.

The increase of sources of renewable energy is considered necessary to avoiding climate change. The cost of producing renewable energy is still higher than the cost of producing energy from fossil fuels. FIT tries to counterbalance this difference, thus making more attractive renewable energy installations, mandating power companies to put into the grid the electricity produced by renewable installations. The difference in cost is spread over all of the customers of the power company. FIT requires net metering regulation to account for electricity purchased from the grid and energy sold to the grid.

FIT is considered as more effective than quotas imposed to power companies, because it fulfills the ethical motive of people. What follows is a simplified summary of FIT policies by some European countries.

COUNTRY	BRACKET 1 (0 < 5 kWp)	BRACKET 2 (5 < 10 kWp)	BRACKET 3 (> 10 kWp)	YEARS	NOTE
Austria	0.46 €/kWh	0.40 €/kWh	0.30 €/kWh	-	lower after 10 yrs
Belgium	1.09 €/kWh	0.82 €/kWh	0.54 €/kWh	15	lower after 10 yrs, < 250 kWp
Bulgaria	0.40 €/kWh	0.36 €/kWh	0.36 €/kWh	-	lower after 10 yrs, bracket 3 = bracket 2
Czech Republic	0.53 €/kWh	0.53 €/kWh	0.53 €/kWh	20	fixed
France	0.55 €/kWh	0.55 €/kWh	0.55 €/kWh	20	fixed, 0.30 €/kWh ground
Germany	(0 < 30kWp) 0.43	(30 < 100 kWp) 0.41 €/kWh	(100 < 1000) 0.40 €/kWh	20	> 1000 kWp 0.33 €/kWh
Greece		(0 <100 kWp) 0.46 €/kWh	(> 100 kWp) 0.40 €/kWh	10
Italy	(0 < 3kWp) 0.49 €/kWh	(3 < 20 kWp) 0.46 €/kWh	(20 < ) 0.44 €/kWh	20
Luxenbourg		(0 < 30kWp) 0.41 €/kWh	(30 < 1000 kWp) 0.36 €/kWh	15
Netherlands	(0.6 < 3kWp) 0.33 €/kWh			15
Portugal	0.55 €/kWh	0.40 €/kWh		5	max 50 MW buildings. 150 ground
Slovenia	0.39 €/kWh	0.39 €/kWh	0.39 €/kWh	10	fixed
Spain	0.33 €/kWh	0.33 €/kWh	0.33 €/kWh	25	fixed

 

 

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