Assembly Bill 117, passed in 2002, allows communities in California to aggregate their load and to procure electricity from their own preferred sources. Under the authority of this law, California’s first community choice aggregator, Marin Clean Energy (MCE), was launched in May of 2010. The Marin Energy Authority comprises each city and town in Marin as well as the communities of Belvedere, Fairfax, Mill Valley, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon, and the County of Marin. The original legislation mandated that the customers of each supporting community would automatically be enrolled in Marin Clean Energy unless they chose not to participate by opting out.
Among the varied sources of renewable energy pursued by MCE are local installations of renewable energy. To streamline the procurement process for small local renewable energy systems, MCE has designed a feed-in tariff which provides long-term contracts to renewable energy system owners. The pricing for the tariff is determined by the total capacity remaining for the program before the contract is signed, and the characteristics of the renewable energy system:
As shown in the table below, systems with a Peak Energy delivery profile earn the highest per-MWh payments, and prices will decline as more systems sign contracts:
| Aggregate rated capacity of all participating projects prior to contract execution |
Peak Energy Prices (20 year term, $/MWh) |
Baseload Energy Prices (20 year term, $/MWh) |
Intermittent Energy Prices (20 year term, $/MWh) |
| < 2 MW | $137.66 | $116.49 | $100.57 |
| > 2 MW, < 4 MW | $120.00 | $105.00 | $95.00 |
| > 4 MW, < 6 MW | $115.00 | $100.00 | $90.00 |
| > 6 MW, < 8 MW | $110.00 | $95.00 | $90.00 |
| > 8 MW, < 10 MW | $105.00 | $95.00 | $90.00 |
| > 10 MW, < 12 MW | $95.00 | $95.00 | $90.00 |
| > 12 MW, < 15 MW | $90.00 | $90.00 | $90.00 |
System owners obligated to sign a contract for a 20-year term. Individual projects are limited to 1 MW, and MEA will accept a total of 15 MW under this tariff unless MEA's Board of Directors votes to expand the program. Feed-in tariff participants are not eligible to participate in any net metering option for energy deliveries from the same facility.
| Implementing Sector: | Local |
| Category: | Financial Incentive |
| State: | California |
| Incentive Type: | Performance-Based Incentive |
| Web Site: | http://www.mcecleanenergy.org/feed-in-tariff/ |
| Administrator: | Marin Clean Energy |
| Start Date: | |
| Eligible Renewable/Other Technologies: |
|
| Incentive Amount: | Varies by technology and position in program capacity queue |
| Terms: | 20 years |
| Eligible System Size: | 1 MW or smaller |
| Ownership of Renewable Energy Credits: | Marin Energy Authority |
| Name: | Marin Clean Energy |
| Address: |
781 Lincoln Avenue, St. 320 San Rafael CA 94901 |
| Phone: | (415) 464-6010 |
| Email: | info@marinenergy.com |
This information is sourced from DSIRE; the most comprehensive source of information on incentives and policies that support renewables and energy efficiency in the United States. Established in 1995, DSIRE is operated by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at N.C. State University.
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