A group of 20 protesters joined The Alliance for Solar Choice, a solar activist group, at the King Kamehameha statute on King Street on Wednesday to rally against the recent Public Utilities Commission decision to end a popular solar incentive program.
In October, the PUC ended net energy metering (NEM), the incentive program that credits solar owners the full retail rate for the excess energy their photovoltaic systems send to the grid, and replaced it with two alternative programs. Following the ruling, The Alliance for Solar Choice filed a lawsuit against the PUC and Gov. David Ige, saying the decision exceeded the agency’s statutory authority.
The majority of the protesters were members of the solar industry and voiced concerns about the decreased benefits customers would get because of the PUC ruling. PUC Chairman Randy Iwase said the decision to discontinue NEM did not end all incentive programs available for homeowners who are interested in rooftop solar.
Dagen Olsen, Hawaii director of sales at LGCY Power, said,
“The removal of NEM makes it more difficult for consumers to benefit from solar.”
Chelsey Sleznikow, account representative at Sunrun, said the decision was misguided.
“There was no listening to what the people wanted for solar,” she said.
Ewa Beach resident Jill Wessel said she has NEM but was worried about her neighbors missing out on the cost savings.
“I just got solar,” Wessel said. “We made it in just in time, but all of our neighbors want solar too, and without net metering it is not affordable. Without net metering, it cuts out a lot of the middle class.”
When told about residents’ concerns, Iwase said incentive programs still exist for new solar owners but the payback on a solar investment would take longer.
“It’s not that everything was ended,” Iwase said. “That is false. That is absolutely untrue. Grid supply has an incentive built in. You get a tax credit. The incentives are still there because the commission believed it was important for PV to continue.”
The two options that replaced NEM are grid-supply and self-supply. Grid-supply credits residents 15.07 cents per kilowatt-hour for excess energy sent to the grid on their monthly bills. NEM customers get the retail rate, which was 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour in November. Through self-supply, customers will not export energy to the grid, but use energy storage systems, such as batteries, to consume all of the energy produced by their rooftop solar panel systems.
The PUC ruling also capped the grid-supply program at 25 megawatts on Oahu. Currently, 272 megawatts of rooftop solar connects to Oahu’s grid.
“The reason why we had capped the program at 25 megawatts for new PV is to keep space available for community solar projects,” Iwase said. “It is a way for people who are not able to afford thousands of dollars for PVs, or who are renters or who live in condominiums, to participate.”
