Upcoming Webinar: Making the Best Use of Incentive Dollars
An interactive webinar is being offered on the topic, Making the Best Use of Incentive Dollars. The webinar will be held Wednesday, November 9, 2011, from 3:30-5 pm Eastern time. This webinar will provide state and utility incentive managers, county planning officials, and other interested stakeholders with an interactive demonstration of the recently-released Distributed Wind…
An interactive webinar is being offered on the topic, Making the Best Use of Incentive Dollars. The webinar will be held Wednesday, November 9, 2011, from 3:30-5 pm Eastern time.
This webinar will provide state and utility incentive managers, county planning officials, and other interested stakeholders with an interactive demonstration of the recently-released Distributed Wind Policy Comparison Tool. The Policy Tool is designed to identify distributed wind policy best practices as part of a U.S. DOE-funded project that ranked states based on their current incentives and market environments, and calculated impacts on project economics for various levels of rebates, feed-in tariffs (FIT), and other incentives.
Participants will better understand what policy improvements – including zoning and interconnection hurdles as well as rebates and tax incentives – are most needed for small wind turbines up to 100 kW, and where. The Policy Tool and accompanying Guidebook, available at www.windpolicytool.org, show which policy combinations have the most (and least) impact on the bottom line.
The Policy Tool’s demo will show how sensitivity analyses can be conducted on various policy options and assumptions to determine impacts and optimal scenarios and guide efficient use of public and ratepayer funds supporting small wind technology. Case studies will be presented to compare and contrast existing policies and “what if” scenarios, evaluating potential Feed-in Tariff rates and tower height allowances.
The webinar will highlight attractive markets and policy targets that offer the quickest return on investment, encouraging state and utility program managers and local planners to build on lessons learned with best practices to sustain and improve support for small wind. Possible next steps for the project will be discussed to expand upon the initial effort and further assist policy makers in addressing market challenges identified in the U.S. DOE “20% Wind Energy by 2030” report and reaching net levelized Cost of Energy (COE) targets for distributed wind as part of a diverse clean energy portfolio.
To register for the webinar, click here.
Webinar presentations and Q&A will be led by:
Tony Jimenez, Senior Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Heather Rhoads-Weaver, Policy & Market Analyst, eFormative Options
Jen Banks, Wind Energy Project Coordinator, North Carolina Solar Center
Alice Orrell, Energy Analyst, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
