But making the utilities pay 4x or 5x over market for power, just because it's from a politically-correct source, is a scheme I can't support.
The purpose of higher than retail payments to micro producers is to offset new construction - an accounting issue how many of todays' dollars spent will reduce or eliminate the need for a new "start with a blank sheet" generating plant.
Once they've pulled the trigger on expansion, whether a turn-key gas turbine, new coal technology, hydroelectric or nuclear it is tens or hundreds of millions of dollars before the first concrete is poured let alone megawatt generated.
If a utility does not have to issue bonds, secure land and zoning, underwrite project insurance, commission environmental studies, build the physical plant, etc. to get a megawatt EVERYONE comes out ahead... ...well, maybe not the lawyers and their pals.
I might see it if the rate is comparable to the cost to the utility (including debt service) of electricity from new construction, less the benefit of having the approved plant in place and approved once the debt is paid off. But 5x market rate seems excessive. While new plants may be more expensive than old to build, they are made with additional decades of engineering improvement, with efficiency, maintenance, and operating cost improvements as a result.
But I don't see including the regulatory red-tape costs in those calculations. They're imposed by the government, not inherent in the construction, and most of them are government meddling rather than addressing legitimate safety or quality-of-life-nearby issues. And those who run the show can always crank up the costs to the utility to any extent they wish, to expand this subsidy. To the extent that costs imposed on new plant construction or operation are social engineering, crediting microgeneration sites with them is still another case of forcing the poor to pay for benefits to the rich and/or well connected.
Another factor: Most of these subsidies are written so they only apply to sites installed by licensed contractors, using approved equipment, etc., rather than paying for power however it is provided. This funnels this money (paid for by the electric rate-payers) to the "renewable energy industry" - which turns out to be largely companies started by politically-connected people like Al Gore.
