RENEW Wisconsin proposes higher buyback rates for renewable electricity

As part of the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign, RENEW Wisconsin prepared a Q&A -- "A Primer on Renewable Energy Producer Payments (REPP’s) -- to explain one of the four principles of the campaign:

Q. What are Renewable Energy Producer Payments (REPP’s)?

A. Renewable Energy Production Payments are premium utility buyback rates designed to encourage customer-owned or third-party-owned installations of small-scale electric generators powered by renewable energy sources as solar, wind, biogas, hydro and biomass. In many jurisdictions where this mechanism has been adopted, REPP’s are better known as feed-in tariffs.

Successfully used in Europe, REPP’s can support a large market for renewable energy and limit the impact on ratepayers by spreading costs to all electricity customers. Where established, REPP’s have fostered extraordinary growth in renewable energy and remarkably high local ownership rates for projects: 45% local ownership of German wind energy projects and 83% of Danish wind installations. In addition, REPP’s have supported a greater diversity of energy sources, such as solar photovoltaics and biogas systems. . . .