New at Reason: Ronald Bailey on Overpriced Green Energy

January 26, 2010

In a bid to encourage solar and wind power generation, the U.S. is looking to "feed-in tariffs"—a subsidy scheme in which utilities are required to pay above-market rates for energy generated by homeowners or businesses that install solar panels or windmills and connect to the grid. The scheme was first devised in Germany, and has been implemented in nearly 20 countries. But as Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey shows, electricity from such schemes costs up to eight times more than conventional power while failing to appreciably cut greenhouse gas emissions or encourage technological innovation.

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