Blackouts show why we need more rooftop solar systems, faster.

I was disheartened to read Wednesday’s misleading headline about renewable energy allegedly causing the recent rolling blackouts (“Weather, reliance on renewable energy behind Oahu’s blackouts,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 10). The headline was especially off the mark since it was rebutted by facts in the article.

Traditional fossil fuel plants were the root cause of the blackouts. Two large oil-burning generators at the Waiau power plant failed on the same day, taking out 100 megawatts of power. As the article acknowledged, even in the face of bad weather, renewable energy such as battery-backed solar was capable of partially serving power needs. If the old fossil fuel generators had partially stayed on, perhaps the blackouts could have been avoided. But that is not how old generators work. When they fail, they fail.

Modern renewable energy is less clunky and more resilient against outages. Data provided by Hawaiian Electric shows that after a decade of increasing renewable energy on Oahu, outages were less frequent in 2022 than they were 10 years ago. This type of resilience can be seen in the thousands of rooftop solar systems powering Hawaii’s grid. To unexpectedly lose 100 megawatts of renewable energy, 10,000 solar-powered homes would have to break down all at once. It’s the difference between putting all your eggs in one basket, versus thousands.

It was also frustrating that the article rehashed a misguided debate about needing old-style “firm energy.” That narrative once served the financial interests of those trying to force Big Island residents to pay for an expensive and dirty tree-burning power plant that would have made climate pollution worse. But thankfully neither the state Public Utilities Commission nor the Hawaii Supreme Court bought into the “firm energy” story when they rejected the proposed Hu Honua plant.

It is a bit ironic that Oahu’s own “firm” trash-burning power plant was part of the problem during Monday’s blackouts. Equally ironic and even more troubling: extreme rainfall events like the ones behind the Waiau plant’s failures are predicted to increase due to climate change caused by fossil fuels like those burned at the Waiau plant.

Rather than getting distracted by the misleading idea that renewable energy caused this week’s blackouts, we should be paying attention to a recent and more relevant decision by the Public Utilities Commission. The decision threatens to slow down new rooftop solar and slow our transition to a more modern and resilient grid. A more accurate and timely headline might have read “Blackouts show why we need more rooftop solar systems, faster.”

Richard Wallsgrove is a professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii-Manoa, specializing in legal issues related to energy; this was submitted in his personal capacity, not on behalf of any institution.