Maui County solar permits drop 47 percent

The number of rooftop solar permits issued for Maui, Molokai and Lanai dropped 47 percent in 2016 compared with the year earlier.

In 2016 there were 1,657 PV permits issued in Maui County, according to data compiled by Marco Mangelsdorf, who tracks rooftop solar permits and is president of Hilo-based ProVision Solar. There were 3,153 solar permits issued in 2015.

The drop on Maui is likely to be mirrored on Oahu, Hawaii island and Kauai once their numbers are released. Permits have been generally in decline since the state in 2015 ended a popular solar energy incentive program called net energy metering. The solar industry has been struggling as a result.

The Maui drop-off accelerated dramatically in the second half of the year with a 67 percent reduction.

The reduction “is particularly disturbing as the latter months of the year are typically the busiest time for the solar industry,” Mangelsdorf said. “Numbers like this represent nothing short of a bloodbath for local solar businesses. … The viability of a once-thriving solar industry on the Valley Isle is at stake.”

The only program still available for Hawaii residents to add rooftop solar and stay connected to the electric grid is self-supply, which prohibits solar owners from sending excess energy into Hawaiian Electric Co.’s grid but allows owners to draw from the grid. Most systems need batteries to meet self-supply requirements.

“The hype and spin continues about energy storage leading the way to the promised land of a large increase in the amount of battery-based, distributed-generation rooftop solar going in, but it’s worth noting that as of Jan. 3 a whopping one CSS (self-supply) system had been approved for actual operation in MECO (Maui Electric Co.) territory,” Mangelsdorf said.