Naturally, utility executives are watching nervously.
HONOLULU — Allan Akamine has looked all around the winding, palm tree-lined cul-de-sacs of his suburban neighborhood in Mililani here on Oahu and, with an equal mix of frustration and bemusement, seen roof after roof bearing solar panels.
Mr. Akamine, 61, a manager for a cable company, has wanted nothing more than to lower his $600 to $700 monthly electric bill with a solar system of his own. But for 18 months or so, the state’s biggest utility barred him and thousands of other customers from getting one, citing concerns that power generated by rooftop systems was overwhelming its ability to handle it.
Only under strict orders from state energy officials did the utility, the Hawaiian Electric Company, recently rush to approve the lengthy backlog of solar applications, including Mr. Akamine’s.
It is the latest chapter in a closely watched battle that has put this state at the forefront of a global upheaval in the power business. Rooftop systems now sit atop roughly 12 percent of Hawaii’s homes, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, by far the highest proportion in the nation
In Germany citizens, co-ops and communities own the majority of the installed renewable power capacity, half of the energy generators are actually “grassroot”.
Citizens own half of German renewable energy
The REN 21 RENEWABLES 2014 GLOBAL STATUS REPORT (PDF, 11.1 MB) states:
“In Germany, almost half of renewable power capacity was citizen owned as of 2013, and about 20 million Germans lived in so-called 100% renewable energy regions.“
Hawaii desperately needs a new energy source. They’re one of the few places in the world that gets most of its electricity from oil – which is just insane. This is where they stood before the recent drop in oil prices:
http://www.civilbeat.com/2011/10/13341-fact-check-hawaii-has-the-highest-electricity-rates-in-the-nation/
If any place could be a test case as to whether price points and the market cause a significant enough shift to renewables on its own, Hawaii is it.
Here’s where they stand now:
http://www.hawaiianelectric.com/heco/Clean-Energy/Latest-Clean-Energy-News/About-Our-Fuel-Mix
More recent plans from HELCO, which supplies the Big Island:
http://www.hawaiielectriclight.com/helco/Clean-Energy
Their latest report:
http://www.hawaiianelectric.com/vcmcontent/StaticFiles/pdf/RPS_Report__2014.pdf
PV is still a tiny contributor to total electricity. Most of the current renewables mix is biomass, followed by geothermal, followed by wind. HELCO intends to ramp up PV by rooftop installations, however. They intend to provide 65% renewables by 2030, although they’ve hidden the percentage of that they project to achieve from PV pretty well – I can’t find it.
Here’s something about it:
http://www.hawaiielectriclight.com/helco/_hidden_Hidden/Hawaiian-Electric-Companies-propose-plan-to-sustainably-increase-rooftop-solar?cpsextcurrchannel=1
I’ve seen that they intend to “triple” PV by 2030, but that would only increase the total to 3% or so of the mix. This is from their report:
“The PUC has stated it believes programs designed to support solar energy need to change. In an Order issued in April 2014, the PUC said:
“It is unrealistic to expect that the high growth in distributed solar PV capacity additions experienced in the 2010 – 2013 time period can be sustained, in the same technical, economic and policy manner in which it occurred, particularly when electric energy usage is declining, distribution circuit penetration levels are increasing, system level challenges are emerging and grid fixed costs are increasingly being shifted to non-solar PV customers.”
Across the three Hawaiian Electric Companies, more than 51,000 customers have rooftop solar. As of December 2014, about 12 percent of Hawaiian Electric customers, 10 percent of Maui Electric customers and 9 percent of Hawaii Electric Light customers have rooftop solar. This compares to a national average of one-half of 1 percent (0.5 percent) as of December 2013, according to the Solar Electric Power Association.”
They could do some wave power systems in Hawaii. And geothermal is a no brainer. And wind turbines would work well, I think. And solar has a lot of potential.
They have all sorts of abundant energy, like the rest of the world.