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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / 2016
Solar panels on an Oahu rooftop in 2016.
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Solar permits issued on Oahu fell last month for the first time this year but through June are still ahead of the year-earlier period.
There were 221 permits issued by the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting for solar electrical systems last month, down 3 percent from 227 in June 2017, according to Marco Mangelsdorf, who tracks rooftop solar permits and is president of Hilo-based ProVision Solar. The number of systems deploying energy storage accounted for 59 percent of the permits.
“There (continues) to be concerns … that the tight supply of the most popular batteries will act as a constraint over the balance of the year to getting these permitted systems up and running in a timely fashion,” Mangelsdorf said Monday in an email. “When it comes to adding batteries to existing PV systems, there was only one permit to do so last month and all of nine so far this year.”
Through the first six months of this year, DPP issued 1,352 photovoltaic permits, up 15 percent from 1,171 in the first six months of 2017.
The total stated value of PV projects year to date more than tripled to $142.4 million from $44.3 million. Several utility-scale projects totaling $86.5 million accounted for the majority of the increase.
Oahu, the largest solar electricity market in the state, had seen the number of solar permits decline prior to this year with just 2,993 solar permits in 2017 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.
The top contractors ranked by permits pulled on Oahu last month were Sunrun, RevoluSun and Hawaii Energy Connection.
