By Kari Williamson

The move could be the first serious effort to introduce a system of feed-in tariffs anywhere in the US during the current legislative session, says Paul Gipe in his latest feed-in tariff update.

The SF 225 calls for a limited system of differentiated tariffs for renewable power plants less than 20 MW in size. It was introduced by Senators Daryl Beall, D-Fort Dodge; Joe Bolkcom , D-Iowa City (Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee); Robert M. Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids; Hubert Houser, D-Carson; and John P. (Jack) Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg to "encourage the development of utility-owned and customer-owned alternate (sic) renewable energy production facilities."

The proposal is modest even by US standards, limiting the amount of new capacity under the programme to half of retail load growth.

Although it does not propose encouraging local ownership specifically, SF 225 does limit programme participation only to projects with a majority of ownership within Iowa.

More significant, however, SF 225 is the first major effort to introduce wind tariffs differentiated by wind resource intensity in the US, Gipe says.

Criteria for qualifying:

• Projects must be in Iowa,
• 51% of the ownership must reside in Iowa, be a cooperative, or be a school district in the state,
• Have arranged financing, and
• Have interconnection agreements in place.