physics

Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom

Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom rather than just read about it. In short: A feed-in tariff (FIT) is paid by energy suppliers in the United Kingdom if a property or organisation generates their own electricity using technology such as solar panels or wind turbines and feeds any surplus back to the grid. The FIT scheme was imposed on suppliers by the UK government, and applied to installations completed between July 2009 and March 2019.

Key takeaways

Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A feed-in tariff (FIT) is paid by energy suppliers in the United Kingdom if a property or organisation generates their own electricity using technology such as solar panels or wind turbines and feeds any surplus back to the grid. The FIT scheme was imposed on suppliers by the UK government, and applied to installations completed between July 2009 and March 2019.

Timespan The FIT scheme entered into law through the Energy Act 2008 and commenced in April 2010, with backdated applications accepted for generation systems installed from July 2009 onwards. Payments were contracted for either 20 or 25 years. The scheme closed to new applicants on 31 March 2019.

Scope The Feed-In Tariff applies to small-scale generation of electricity using eligible renewable technologies. To encourage development of these technologies, feed-in tariffs pay the generator a certain amount – even for energy which the generator themselves consumes. Electricity fed into the grid receives an additional export tariff. Costs for the programme are borne by all British electricity consumers proportionally. Payments through the scheme are intended to replace the ROCs available through the Renewables Obligation for small-scale renewable energy generators. In detail:

The tariff is available only to renewable sources producing up to 5 MW. Specific rates are set for different technologies and at different scales of installation for those technologies. Generators of renewable electricity larger than 5MW remain eligible to earn Renewables Obligation Certificates within the existing Renewables Obligation quota mechanism. To prevent companies from moving large scale (for example big wind) projects from the ROCs to the Feed-in Tariff programme, measures were taken to discourage the breaking-up of bigger projects into several small ones to fit within the 5MW size cap. There are several other qualification requirements, including: certification under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme and the REAL Code for systems up to 50 kW; the use of specific metering standards; and systems being installed no earlier than July 2009. From 1 April 2012, homeowners applying for FIT for solar generation had to provide an energy performance certificate with at least a Band D rating to qualify for the highest rate of payment. The contract term is 20 years, or 25 years for solar photovoltaic projects: this means that, starting from 2010, British providers of wind energy, hydropower, energy from biomass and anaerobic digestion eligible for the FIT scheme were rewarded with a tariff rate guaranteed for the next 20 or 25 years. The tariff made available to generators was subject to degression, meaning that the tariff level available for new generators decreased each year. The rate of degression varied by renewable energy technology. The price for individual renewable energy generating plants was fixed once the plant became operational. Costs for the programme are paid by the energy suppliers. Suppliers are expected to pass on the cost to their electricity customers. In 2010, the UK government estimated that feed-in tariffs to support small-scale low-carbon generation would cost £8.6 billion up to 2030 and produce monetised carbon savings worth £0.42 billion. Feed-in-Tariff payments are tax-free in the UK.

Year one feedback A study from the University of London assessed the first year of the UK FIT scheme through interviews with both users of the scheme and government figures. The key findings were that users have had a wide variety of experiences, depending on the technology they are working with, and that the government had very limited ambitions on small-scale renewable energy generation. Domestic solar performed well in the first year, with 28,028 of the 28,614 total solar installations (totalling nearly 78MW). Wind power was the next highest installation level with 1,348 (20.4MW). Small hydro had 206 (12.1MW), although many were not new installations, but had been transferred from the Renewable Obligation scheme. Micro-CHP had 98 installations (0.09MW), and Anaerobic Digestion (AD) had just 2 (0.66MW). AD came under scrutiny in 2011 to determine why development was so poor. The study suggested that technologies have a variety of factors affecting their performance in terms of installation levels. The factors include cost, size, availability, standardisation of the technology, planning issues, ease of installation, perceived sensory impact (sight, sound and smell) and administrative complexity. Domestic PV scores very positively on all these factors, while small hydro and AD do far less well. The proposed changes to the tariff levels for PV have been met with anger by many in the solar industry, but the FIT policy, along with the Green Investment Bank and now carbon reduction targets, are widely understood to be threatened by the Treasury department. This is due to the schemes being considered as liabilities on the national balance sheet.

Reviews to feed-in tariff rates in 2011 Less than a year into the scheme, in March 2011 the new coalition Government announced that support for large-scale photovoltaic installations (greater than 50 kW) would be cut. From 1 August 2011 the rate for installations over 50 kW was to range from 19p/kWh to 8.5p/kWh for the largest qualifying installations (5MW), with the Government claiming that this would prevent the scheme from becoming 'overwhelmed'. Revised tariffs for farm-scale anaerobic digestion initially of either 14p/kWh or 13p/kWh, depending on the installation size, were introduced from September 2011. On 31 October 2011 a second review of the Feed in Tariffs for low carbon electricity generation was announced which is likely to take effect from 12 December 2011. The rates for small photovoltaic installations have been reduced from 43.3p/kWh to 21 pence/kWh. The reason for the second review is that FITs for PV were being taken up too quickly and that the DECC funding allocation for FITs was in danger of being exceeded. A further reason is that the cost of installing PV panels has reduced by around 50% and therefore the FITs had become less of an encouragement to install PV panels and more of an incitement to profit from excessive subsidies. See revised tariff tables for FITs.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom

In research: Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Electric power in the United Kingdom, Feed-in tariffs, Law of the United Kingdom, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom in simple terms?

Why does Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Feed-in tariffs in the United Kingdom.