Oahu PV permits plunged 40 percent in September
DENNIS ODA/ APRIL 19
Photovolaic panels are on the roof of the Sullivan Center for Innovation and Leadership at ‘Iolani School.
The number of photovoltaic building permits issued for Oahu fell 40 percent in September compared with the same month last year.
The City and County of Honolulu issued 379 PV permits last month, down from 631 in September 2015, according to Sunday data sent by Marco Mangelsdorf, who tracks rooftop solar permits and is president of Hilo-based ProVision Solar.
Permits have been generally in decline since the state ended a popular solar energy incentive program last fall. The solar industry has been struggling as a result.
In October 2015, the state Public Utilities Commission terminated a popular incentive for rooftop solar. The program gave solar customers credit equal to the retail rate for the excess energy their systems sent to the grid. The program — net energy metering — helped many of its participants reduce their electric bill to roughly $17 a month.
When NEM ended, the PUC replaced it with two other options called grid-supply and self-supply. And now only one of the two incentive programs, self-supply, is available.
All of Hawaiian Electric Co.’s service territories have met the state’s limit placed on grid-supply. The program lets customers export excess energy to the grid and credits owners 15 cents a kilowatt-hour for the extra energy their systems send. The rate is roughly 8 cents less than the retail rate that had been offered through the NEM program.
Self-supply prohibits solar owners from sending excess energy into HECO’s grid. Most systems need batteries to meet self-supply requirements.
The self-supply program has seen a lackluster adoption rate, Mangelsdorf said.
“The adoption rate of customer self supply, typically requiring battery storage, has been decidedly underwhelming with less than 60 in the pipelines for all three Hawaii Electric utilities as of Sept. 27,” Mangelsdorf said.
Last week PUC officials said they would be starting a process in which they may reconsider the rules for grid-supply and self-supply.
“The commission recently formally opened the gate for the development and implementation of so-called phase two,” Mangelsdorf said. “The concern among PV contractors, and their customers, is that by the time phase two is determined and goes into effect, there may not be much of local solar electric industry remaining.”
Some 442 solar employees have lost their jobs since the end of a popular solar incentive program, equaling a 42 percent reduction in the solar workforce over the last year.
17 responses to “Oahu PV permits plunged 40 percent in September”
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Because HECO doesn’t want you to go solar.
HECO doesn’t want any energy production that it does not own. So I’m sure they’re perfectly happy for the entire state to go solar . . . so long as the public pays for HECO to own the system. That’s why home-owner solar never had a real chance. But this is actually a good thing for people who got solar when they did — because if the trend had continued, HECO would have faced the possibility of becoming obsolete. The Legislature would never have allowed that, and would have made EVERYONE (even solar owners who are off the grid) pay a tax to keep HECO operating. But the transition stopped early, so the current solar owners can go off the grid if they want to, without the Legislature interfering.
Please don’t vote for any local Democrat candidates. They appoint the PUC which regulates Solar.
Sunshine is free so politicians don’t support it. Only big talkers
Sunshine may be, but PV is $20-80k. Far from free.
Agree but the price keeps going down, and once batteries are affordable, HECO will be out of business.
But but but Gov Ige said by year 20…………..
The change to self supply made it now cost prohibitive to install electric panels . Battery costs kill the program.
Hmmmm, maybe not. Tesla batteries only cost about $2,000. True, one might need two; but, that doesn’t sound so prohibitive.
Not true. To have a reasonable power output you will need at least 3 7.500KWH at $21000 and they will not last much longer than 10 years.
Just about everyone knows why PV systems aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Nothing new here folks.
Nobody is going to go “self supply” now since the PUC might change the rules for “grid-supply and “self-supply”. They might allow more “grid-supply”. Then those paying for expensive batteries aren’the going to be happy. The PUC certainly doesn’t seem to know what they are doing.
442 people out of work because the PUC kissed HECO’s greedy lass.
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You got it backward HECO gives to the democrat party big time. It is called pay to play
Amazing how ST U P I D this state is. Best place in the world for Solar power but we STOP it so HECO can make more profits.
The Sun is an user fee.
“PEAK OIL” was the warning. $200 a barrel oil was the prediction. $52 a barrel oil is the reality. Who knows whats next.