25 comments on Anaerobic Digestion (AD) in Ontario – A Regulatory Obstacle Course
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Marotti32 has posted on TOD about similar initiatives in Germany. These were implemented under what I understand to be a "Feed Law" that required the German utilities to purchase power generated by small scale PV and bio-reactors.
It would seem that some of the same technical challenges would have been addressed in the the German initiative. Do you know of any technology transfer between the two nations?
Kudos for posting this by the way. I live up here and this is the first I have heard of this initiative.
Cheers!
The Standard Offer Program (SOP) is equivalent to the German feedlaw, although the guiding idea is quite different. In Europe, the point of advanced renewable tariffs under a feedlaw is to exploit as much of the existing renewable potential as possible, using a wide range of technologies and deliberately encouraging distributed development. If one RE technology is more expensive than another, a higher tariff would be paid, or if the energy source to be exploited is more diffuse in a particular area, then a higher tariff would be paid in order to ensure that the potential of all areas is developed.
This leads to a completely different distribution of renewable generation than one would expect under the North American circumstances where comparative advantage is the guiding philosophy. Here, there are only two tariff bands - one for solar PV and one for everything else, regardless of cost structure. Even the inclusion of a solar tariff was a hard fought battle, and the level chosen is insufficient to provide a return on investment. The renewable tariff was set with wind power in particularly windy areas in mind. Almost any other RE technology would struggle under this pricing regime, but if the point is to build only the cheapest possible RE capacity then that is not seen as a problem.
The issue of self-reliance versus comparative advantage in relation to renewable generation was discussed more fully here:
Standard Offer Contracts - the Future for Renewable Generation?