Make the Electric Company Pay You

Dreading the arrival of your next electric bill? The one that will cover this last week of single-digit temperatures?  What if instead you were looking forward to a check from your power company? It can happen, with the feed-in tariff in the Clean Energy Opportunity Act proposed for the Kentucky General Assembly.

From Kentuckians for the Commonwealth:

The Clean Energy Opportunity Act would create a Renewable and Efficiency Portfolio Standard requiring utilities in Kentucky to get an increasing share of their electricity from clean, renewable sources and energy efficiency programs.

It will also establish a Feed-in Tariffs that set a guaranteed rate for renewable energy producers.

But you don't have to be a corporation to be a renewable energy producer.  All you have to have is a couple of solar panels on your roof.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has paid a Kentucky school district a little more than $37,000 for producing electricity.

Richardsville Elementary School in Bowling Green earns money from the energy it produces.School district spokeswoman Joanie Hendricks said the payment from TVA goes into a separate account, which will be used to replace solar panels at Richardsville when they wear out.

A feed-in tariff is not the energy credit system in which the power company just credits your account for the energy your roof solar panels produce, but you never get paid for the extra energy beyond the amount you use.

A feed-in tariff requires the power company to pay you in actual money, not energy credits.

After an initial investment for solar panels - the price of which is dropping every day - it's pure profit.

Gainesville Florida pioneered the technique years ago, but it's been a slow slog getting other states to pass legislation requiring power companies to pay.

Call or email your legislators and ask them to sponsor the Clean Energy Opportunity Act.