They're guaranteed a price - a feed-in tariff - for their electricity when they sell it into the grid for 20 years.

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China has targeted procurement policies for clean energy, and a variable feed-in tariff for wind power.

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This expansion and the valuations of the established Chinese makers was in part built on hopes that China would implement a German-style feed-in-tariff subsidy program, something China was talking about around the time of the Copenhagen climate meeting.

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Despite healthy volume, average selling price continued to decline as the Euro weakened and Germany transitioned to a new, lower feed-in-tariff regime.

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But shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint said the changes could amount to a 70% cut in the feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidy in just six months.

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When the federal government tried to speed up cuts in the feed-in tariff for solar power, several states put up a fight, forcing a partial retreat.

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The feed in tariff is some 48 p per kWh: the more usual cost of a kWh of regular electricity is 10p.

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