The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) is an incentive made to remunerate the production of renewable energy both by households and investors. Power companies are required to pay back, at rates higher than the market, power produced from renewable sources; such as wind, thermal solar, photovoltaic solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal. This tariff is also named Feed-in Law, Solar Premium, Renewable Tariff or Renewable Energy Payments. FIT helps make the production of renewable energy competitive. Usually governments guarantee the tariff for up to 15, 20 or even 25 years from the date of the installation.

The growth of sources of renewable energy is deemed necessary to stopping climate change. The cost of producing renewable energy is still higher than the cost of producing energy from petrol and carbon. FIT tries to counterbalance this difference, thus making more attractive renewable energy installations, mandating power companies to put into the grid the electricity made by renewable installations. The difference in cost is spread over all of the customers of the power grid. FIT requires net metering regulation to account for power purchased from the grid and energy sold to the grid.

FIT is considered more effective than quotas levied on power companies, because it meets the morals of people. What follows is a simplified outline of FIT policies by some European countries.

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