Don’t They Like the Sun in Hawaii?
March 29, 2010
If there’s any state in the Union that could call itself a natural candidate for solar power, it might have to be Hawaii. The Aloha State has the most expensive rates of fossil fuel-powered electricity in the country (over 26 cents/kilowatt-hour, compared to an average for the nation of under 11 cents/kilowatt-hour). The state relies on imported fossil fuels for more than 96% of its energy, yet has abundant supplies of renewable power sources: wind, waves and – most of all – sun. Grid parity for solar in Hawaii – that point in time at which it is no more expensive to use solar power than conventional power to generate electricity – has well and truly passed there.
It’s a state where you might expect the electric utility to be encouraging residential and commercial customers to install solar power. It would reduce the state’s total fuel bill and, even better, obviate the need for the utility to build more fossil-based power plants. You might also expect the utility to get into the clean energy game itself with central station solar or utility-scale wind installations.
Of course, you might also be very frustrated in your expectations.
The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) is attempting to block homes and businesses from installing rooftop solar panels and connecting them to the grid in every island except Oahu. The state has had a net metering regime in place for nine years, but what aroused HECO’s ire was the proposal that a feed-in tariff – in which customers become power producers and are paid a premium rate for their output be adopted.
HECO’s first volley was to propose to the State Public Utilities Commission (PUC) a complete ban on any new grid-connected solar power, on the grounds that too much intermittent distributed generation could destabilize the grid. In theory this could happen, but probably not until distributed generation accounts for some 10% of the grid total, twice its current total. After a backlash of public opinion, the utility revised its proposal by setting a limit on net-metered power of 3%, having earlier agreed on a 4% cap.
According to Isaac Moriwake of Earthjustice, this would just have the effect of wrecking the local solar industry by the end of this year, rather than immediately.
HECO has also proposed establishing a working group to study the issue and make recommendations by the end of next year. As those of us who’ve spent time around professional obfuscators know, ‘studying’ an issue – especially one that has been addressed and answered thoroughly in other parts of the world – can be a cost-effective way of delaying or defeating it.
The PUC is considering the HECO proposal, and is due to rule on it on April 8. The term ‘slam-dunk’ comes to mind, since no possible harm could come from allowing installations to continue while the working group does its work, but upsets are as common in politics as they are in sports.
You can find out more about the HECO case on Earthjustice’s blog here: http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/blog/2010-march/solar-energy-foes-try-block-sun
If you’re in Hawaii, you can take action to urge the PUC to reject HECO’s proposal by visiting here: http://capwiz.com/re-action/go/HECO
If renewable energy development can be suppressed in a location like Hawaii for tendentious reasons that serve to obstruct the public good, the battle will need to be fought not just there but everywhere in the country.
March 31st, 2010 at 10:43 am
The truer issue with Hawaii is that the majority of the people who would benefit from having solar are the ones with no real financial means of affording it, and have no real wish to make the comittment to try. “The Grid” in Hawaii was established to serve the military interests in the state some 100 years ago, and as such there are still wide tracts of land with limited or no service whatsover. Off-grid power is NOT something HECO can afford to support, even though in this instance it is substantially more feasable. Hawaii’s power issues are closely tied to the other utility issues involved with growth. The existing grid in Hawaii defines the habitable areas for her growth and the accompanying water and sewage requirements for it are no where near as viable as power might be.
March 31st, 2010 at 11:35 am
U.S. clean energy investments hit $18.6 billion last year, a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts said, a little more than half the Chinese total of $34.6 billion. Five years ago, China’s investments in clean energy totaled just $2.5 billion.
The Chinese have in Q2 ’09 surpassed US PV module power production (their 398 to our 352 MW but by the end of last year they truly left US {pun intended} in the dust with their 891 to our 524 megawatts produced in the 4th quarter ’09 production. It is predicted Chinese production numbers only escalate in 2010 despite two of the largest Chinese companies setting up assembly plants here, that gets around “made in America’ provisions in stimulus funded projects and gvt. pressure of make believe jobs being created here.
There is nothing wrong with honest competition but with a totally subsidized industry there we do not stand a chance. This is truly a one two punch to the us based renewable industry with the energy investment being overshadowed by China and the gvt. controlled industry there flooding our market with under-market priced PV panels.
March 31st, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Hawaiian Electric would like to make it clear that it is NOT proposing to stop photovoltaic installations while a working group reviews reliability issues. Last month, Hawaiian Electric clarified it is continuing to interconnect photovoltaic systems on all islands. The utility expressed regret that its initial Public Utilities Commission filing caused unnecessary and unintended alarm among PV developers.
“It was not meant as an immediate stop,” according to Robbie Alm, Hawaiian Electric executive vice president. “Instead, it was a signal that we need to move promptly to address major issues to avoid tough choices. It is with this sense of urgency that we are committed to working promptly and openly with the solar developers and with other technical experts to address the potential reliability issues.
“We want all of our customers to embrace renewables and energy efficiency. That will only be possible if we continue to meet their expectations for reliable power. We are absolutely convinced that a clean energy future can be achieved without compromising reliability. We are determined to quickly resolve these issues.”Alm said. “It is ultimately the utilities’ responsibility to make sure our power system is safe and reliable, while we move aggressively to a renewable energy future.”
Both Maui and Hawaii Island are far advanced in the total amount of intermittent renewables online. Including 30 MW of existing wind power, Maui has more than 17% intermittent renewables when comparing total MW installed to peak demand.
On Hawaii Island, including the 31 MW from wind farms, HELCO is already at 29% intermittent renewables.
To clarify:
• The Hawaiian Electric companies are not stopping any distributed generation interconnection requests on any island; in fact, the utilities continue to move aggressively to add more renewables on Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii Island.
• Hawaiian Electric is continuing to implement a very successful Net Energy Metering program on all islands in our service territory and at this moment is moving to increase the size of the program at Maui Electric Company.
• Hawaiian Electric remains firmly committed to start the Feed-in Tariff program within the current year on Oahu.
All Hawaii utilities have been recognized by the Solar Energy Power Association as among the top ten in the nation for installation of solar power per customer.
May 6th, 2010 at 10:06 am
For those interested in potentially becoming a net metered customer, I think it’s important to understand that with a normal net metering agreement, this credit will roll over month after month but expire at the end of the year. You will never be “paid” for the extra electricity you feed into the grid. There is another arrangement, however, known as a Feed In Tariff (FIT) in which you are paid in cash for all the kilowatt-hours your system produces. Unfortunately, the legal and technical details of FIT in Hawaii are still being worked out and FIT cannot be combined with Net Metering. Once the FIT rate is announced it will take some quick analysis by a trained solar consultant to evaluate which choice is best. Generally, if you have a low monthly power bill but a very large roof (and thus a larger capacity to generate power) you may want to go with FIT. However, the average home owner in Hawaii will probably find that their roof size limits their production capacity to a value fairly close to their usage, in which case it would make more sense to go with Net Metering. Net Metering is credited at full retail rate, and it is speculated that FIT will be a rate lower than full retail.
One other limitation which is slowly being removed by amendments to the original 2001 law is the limit on the total number of customers of each of the utility companies in the state who can sign up for the program. Each utility company has its own set of rules, but the limits on net metering signups range from 1% to 4% of peak generation depending on your island as of this writing. There is considerable political pressure in Hawaii to raise these rates and allow more homeowners to participate in net metering.
September 6th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
to Ron: with financing options requiring no money down, no payment for up to 18 months, the bad economy sounds like a rather pathetic reasoning for not buying residential PV systems. the Hawaiians are cheap, period. they have the best tax incentives in the country and the highest kWh rate, which means their ROI is the shortest. but they still wait for the technology to go down in price. unfortunately, they don’t realize 2 things: the supply of panels is getting short due to solar booms in Europe n China; FIT will increase the demand for PV n consequently the prices, too. the economic stupidity of such an approach is beyond belief…
November 12th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Moving and powerful! Youve certainly got a way of reaching people that I havent seen very often. If most people wrote about this subject with the eloquence that you just did, Im sure people would do much more than just read, theyd act. Great stuff here. Please keep it up.