That system is exactly what was set up in my state of Minnesota through the state-mandated community-based economic development program. This program required utilities in rural parts of the state to buy back the excess generation from individual wind turbines that were installed by small farmers. It really gave them the economic wherewithal to finance putting these projects in place.
So individual farmers started doing that. They would put up one, two, three wind turbines. They would continue farming all around the wind turbines themselves. The power sales that were guaranteed through state legislation provided a financing mechanism that allowed the installations to take place. The state has estimated that in some cases, farmers may earn as much as $100,000, once their capital costs have been paid back, from the sale of electricity.
That's essentially the same kind of mechanism that Germany has used. A feed-in tariff sparked the really significant growth of the solar industry in Germany, including the manufacturing of solar panels.