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"Patterned after Germany's highly successful Renewable Energy Sources Act, Veteran Michigan Assemblywoman Kathleen Law submitted a bill to the Michigan House of Representatives earlier this week that creates the first comprehensive renewable energy feed-in tariff (FIT) introduced into any U.S. legislature."

Rooftop solar less than 30 kW: $0.65 USD/kWh


http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50004

*edit kW to kWh... thanks james

I think kW is correct. They will pay $0.65 for every kWh produced by solar panels up to 30kW in size.

It looks like a really good incentive but not the type that will attract fly-by-night operators.

By my estimates, a 30kW system would still cost around $240K ($8 per watt) to install, and I suspect that in Michigan it would not produce more than 150kWh a day in the summer and maybe half that in winter. This means we are looking at somewhere in the region of 30,000 to 50,000 kwh per year. Translated into dollars that means the system will take 7 to 12 years to pay for itself.

Now if the cost of the system can be reduced from $240K to $180K ($6 per watt) then the payback is much quicker, but presumably the State of Michigan is going to view the $0.65 per kwh you get from the utility as income and tax you on that as well. So the only loser in this scenario is the utility company that has to pay $0.65 per kwh for electricity that they could produce for less that $0.10 per kwh using some alternative atmosphere polluting substance.

BTW, the utility company in the Cayman Islands generates electricity by burning diesel, and with the price of oil going over $80 per barrel I expect that I will have to pay around $0.40 per kwh to them in my next bill. My last bill was $0.32 per kwh and they have announced that there will be a surcharge this month due to their increased cost of fuel.