Collective solar power project is OK’d

Hawaii’s first collective solar energy project designed for local utility customers who can’t install photovoltaic panels on their property is expected to start producing power early next year.

Hawaiian Electric Co. announced Monday that it approved its first community-­ based renewable energy project, also referred to as “solar without a roof.”

The 270-kilowatt photovoltaic system is to be developed by Tritium3 Renewable Ventures, which attracted close to a dozen primarily nonprofit organizations and small businesses to invest in the facility, which is designed with 864 solar panels slated for rooftop space at Mililani Tech Park.

“It’s definitely a new adventure,” said Ryan McCauley, Tritium3 CEO, who said he expects to have the system producing electricity for Oahu’s grid early next year. “We are excited to move this new initiative forward which provides a unique approach to solar participation.”

Under the program, HECO ratepayers who don’t have their own photovoltaic systems can invest in a community­-based solar project and receive a credit on their electricity bill in return.

Though the main investors in the Tritium3 project are commercial customers, HECO structured its program to also appeal to consumers who can’t install solar panels on their homes because they live in a high-rise or they rent.

Peter Rosegg, a HECO spokesman, said the credit is designed to be in line with what homeowners can receive for their own photovoltaic systems under existing HECO rooftop solar programs.

On Oahu the credit is 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, which gets divided between investors. Any credits not used after a year are voided.

Tritium3’s project is roughly equivalent to the number of solar panels that typically would go on 45 to 67 single-family homes.

McCauley, a former general and business development manager for Hoku Solar, declined to identify specific investors or disclose the project cost.

The project, named Mili­lani Tech Solar I, is among an early batch of seven community-­based solar projects submitted to HECO, which wants to generate eight megawatts of electricity on Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Hawaii island under an initial phase of the program.

HECO said the other six project proposals are being reviewed and that more approvals are expected next year.

“This first-ever community solar project in Hawaii is a welcome beginning, but only the beginning of an initiative that will provide many customers who do not have private rooftop solar — including renters and apartment dwellers — the opportunity to reduce their bills and be part of our renewable energy transformation,” Shelee Kimura, HECO vice president of customer service, said in a statement.

The Legislature in 2015 mandated that a community-based renewable energy program be established in Hawaii. After specifics were offered by HECO and the customer-owned Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, the state Public Utilities Commission approved program parameters. HECO and KIUC began accepting applications last year.

Of the eight megawatts HECO sought in its first phase of community-based solar, up to one megawatt on Maui and up to 500 kilowatts on Lanai still can be proposed.

On Kauai, KIUC said it accepted two proposals that are still in a preliminary phase that includes securing sites and financing.