Feed-in tariffs have driven most of the solar power growth in the world. Yet, they are not widely used in the U.S. However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) recently implemented a feed-in tariff (FiT) for solar power, and it has already spurred a good bit of solar demand.
107 megawatts (MW) worth of solar projects were submitted for application in the first week of the program.
PV Magazine writes: “Overall, LADWP aims to install 100 MW of solar and other renewable energy projects in the department’s service territory by 2016. However, already in the opening week of its new FIT program, the first 20 MW allocation has been oversubscribed to.”
Far oversubscribed.
The 107 MW of projects are split up as follows:
- solar projects 30 to 150 kW in size — 2 MW
- solar projects 151 kW to 3 MW in size — 76 MW
Individual electricity customers as well as solar project developers have submitted the applications.
These initial applicants get into the priority review list. They’ll have their submissions reviewed within the next 5 months, and the successful applicants will be granted a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) and will receive $0.14/kWh–$0.17/kWh for the electricity they produce (the price depends on location).
Of course, a massive oversubscription creates problems. For those who aren’t in the initial 20-MW award group, they could be granted a PPA in the next round (within the following 6 months) or the round after that. However, the tariff rate will go down after the first round. Good luck to all the applicants. Too bad the target solar power growth rate isn’t higher.
Image Credit: Solar panels and sunset in LADWP district by waltarrrrr (some rights reserved)
