Your Questions About Renewable Energy Certificates

Chris asks…

Are there any government polices concerning wind energy?

I’m writing an essay for my college English class about wind energy and I’m required to include information about a government policy concerning wind, but I cannot seem to find anything. Any websites or helpful information would be greatly appreciated.

admin answers:

I assume you’re from the UK or US?

In the US: Look up wind’s ‘Production Tax Credit’ or ‘PTC’. This isn’t a US gov’t site but it might give you an idea where to look:
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/solutions/big_picture_solutions/production-tax-credit-for.html

In the UK: Look up the ‘Renewables Obligation Certificate’ or ‘ROC’.
Http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/policy/renewables-obligation/page15630.html

James asks…

How do you sell electricity back to the National Grid?

It’s already been on the news that some people have used their excess energy (from solar cells, for example) to sell electricity back to their energy supplier.

Does anyone know how you’d go about setting something like that up. I mean, do you need planning permission to start with? Can you really just fire up a generator, hook it up to the Grid and expect to get paid instead of receiving a bill?

admin answers:

You must have:

•Your electricity supply with the company to which you wish to sell back electricity (in most cases).
•A renewable generator installed with annual generation greater than 500kWh (a 1.4kW domestic wind turbine could have an annual output of 2000kWh) and accredited by OFGEM to receive ROCs (Renewable Obligation Certificates) See www.ofgem.gov.uk
•Compliance from your local distribution company for connection of the renewable generator to the national grid.
•An OFGEM approved gross generation meter that measures all the output of your system,
•An export meter to register the amount of electricity you feed into the electricity network. (£75 plus VAT)
•A special inverter (called a Windy Boy) to synchronise the varying voltage from your wind turbine to the stable grid supply. This is individually programmed on-site to optimise power exported to the grid and to ensure network safety by disconnecting if the grid fails.

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