Last Thursday at the November 12th Board Meeting of the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society, I spoke on the subject of Feed In Tariff legislation. The idea of FIT/REP is to incentivize renewable energy investments by setting a fixed price over a specified contract period (e.g, 20 years) for selling energy back to the grid. A standard contract with utilities would make it possible for investors to calculate an accurate payback period. This would give banks the needed confidence to finance small scale distributed renewable energy projects such as residential solar, wind, and anaerobic digesters. The idea of FIT is based on models that have put Germany – in theory a country that has less renewable energy resource than Minnesota – in the forefront of renewable energy development. (You can now watch my presentation on line: click here.)
The Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES) is a member-run non-profit organization created to promote the use of, and to engage in advocacy for, renewable energies in Minnesota through education and through the demonstration of practical applications. MRES is involved in education, awareness, and advocacy efforts for all forms of renewable energy, with a particular emphasis on solar technologies. Upcoming events can be found in their newsletter.
We have a 1000MW Verticle wind turbine that would generate enough energy for 750,000 homes. We can put it in place with a financing mechanism from a humanitarian fund. The system would employ roughly 600 people to construct and give 250 people full time jobs when it is completed. We would love to put in place in Minnesota