September 24, 2012 – The Province of Nova Scotia is asking for feedback on how to improve its Community Feed-in Tariff (COMFIT) program, which aims to encourages community participation in renewable energy projects.

Introduced in the 2010 Renewable Electricity Plan, COMFIT officially launched last September. Since then, more than 45 projects have been approved and dozens more are finalizing business plans.

“From the beginning, we committed to continual improvement of the program and a review once we had some experience under our belt,” said energy minister Charlie Parker. “We consider this a tune-up to ensure the program is meeting its objectives and is aligned with operational realities.”

The review will include public consultation and discussions with those in the program and will examine applicant eligibility, geographical distribution, eligible technologies, quantity of energy being offered, community engagement and support, things learned from previous projects and administration.

COMFIT provides municipalities, First Nations, co-operatives, not-for-profit and other eligible groups an established price-per-kWh for projects that produce electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, biomass, in-stream tidal and river tidal developments.

During the review, the department will not accept applications for wind projects of more than 50 kilowatts. Projects already in the application system will be processed.