Solar permits issued on Oahu increase again

Solar permits issued on Oahu rose in April for the fourth straight month, a turnaround after last year’s slowest stretch in a decade.

There were 206 permits issued by the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting for solar electric systems last month, up 7.3 percent from the 192 in April 2017, according to Marco Mangelsdorf, who tracks rooftop solar permits and is president of Hilo-­based ProVision Solar.

Through the first four months of this year, DPP issued 834 photovoltaic permits, up 14.6 percent from 728 in the first four months of 2017. The value of those permitted projects totaled $35.9 million, up about 24 percent compared with $28.9 million in the same period the year before. More than half of the PV systems included batteries as Hawaii continues to lead the nation in the real-time deployment of energy storage.

The top contractors ranked by permits pulled on Oahu were Sunrun, 282 permits worth $8.1 million; RevoluSun, 102 permits worth $3.5 million; and Hawaii Energy Connection, 70 permits worth $3.9 million.

Oahu, the largest solar electric market in the state, had been shrinking with just 2,993 solar permits last year compared with 4,591 in 2016 and 7,493 in 2015. The peak for photovoltaic permits issued on Oahu occurred in 2012 with 16,715, leaving last year’s number down 82 percent from the all-time high.