In Europe it has become more and more popular for people to voluntarily and also enthusiastically adopt the concept of personal solar energy production and harnessing the power of the wind. The glint of solar panels on the roofs or the whirr of a wind turbine in a backyard is so common a sight, that you’d soon stop noticing.
This is all happening because the local governments in some areas of Europe will pay homeowners the best rates possible for the electricity they supply to the grid, often 4 or 5 times what a utility company would get.
This method of encouraging people to switch to solar power or wind power has been so successful that counties and districts across the US are now beginning to take note. Last year, Gainesville, Florida became one of the first to convert to the European model.
The great prices that homeowners get for every unit of power they produce, encourages them to invest in these sometimes costly installations and city councils have been enthusiastically backing these solar energy production efforts.
One place in America that would really welcome this scheme would have to be Hawaii, where the cost of electricity is so expensive, that people have been desperate to find alternatives to regular power.
In Europe, where the plan was originally born, the name of the plan is the feed-in tariff. Their government just tells the utility company that market rates do not apply to this green solar power. As a result, the people who take the plunge benefit from getting cash rebates and tax breaks too. Under the feed-in tariff plan, you just continue to get paid forever.
So, as a twist, what all the “help the environment” preaching in the world could never do for solar power, a little extra payment always seems extra successful!
