COMMENTARY
PV power: When will state see the light?
By Marco Mangelsdorf
Attending a high-profile conference on renewable energy at the Sheraton in Waikiki, one could not help but be impressed by the lineup of the mayor of Honolulu, U.S. senators, a high-level representative from the governor's office and other distinguished speakers advocating in unison the need for and promise of Hawai'i to lead the nation in the adoption of clean, green energy technologies. Except that conference took place back in 1979 and here we are nearly 30 years later hearing much of the same: Hawai'i is dangerously dependent on imported oil and must lead the way in rapidly accelerating the diffusion of renewable energies. Talk about back to the future.
One renewable energy source — solar electric or photovoltaic (PV) power — has the potential to provide greater energy independence to more Hawai'i homes and businesses in the near-term; yet only glacier-like progress is being made in the adoption of this technology.
One would think that a 25 percent or more increase in the price of utility power in the past year should be enough to motivate homeowners and businesses to explore PV as a way of stabilizing their energy costs. One also would think that paying the highest electricity rates in the nation — more than 40 cents/kilowatt-hour on Kaua'i, Moloka'i and Lana'i — would support a breakout of grid-connected PV sales. But that has not been the case. Grid-connected PV systems, for example, comprise only 12/100ths of 1 percent of the state's total electric generating capacity.
For those of us in the trenches, it's surprising that Hawai'i does not lead the U.S. in the adoption of grid-tie PV while on a per-capita basis we do lead the nation with the installation of solar water heating systems. A number of factors can be identified that have made PV applications a tough sell:
There are some signs of hope. From 2006 to 2007, Hawai'i's total number of net energy metered PV systems — where solar electric system purchasers receive credit for their solar power at the full retail rate — almost doubled from 210 to 415, with a total of 2.267 megawatts installed. The Public Utilities Commission is expected soon to approve increasing the maximum size for net energy metered systems from 50 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts. This will make larger systems more attractive to business owners and their financial advisers. The governor and Legislature are supportive of bringing more renewables on line faster. And, a proposed PV buy-down program and other bills making their way through the Legislature promise to open the floodgates of demand for grid-tie solar electric systems.
Perhaps then the enthusiastic talk of tapping into the power of the sun, wind, ocean and heat of the Earth to develop Hawai'i as a showcase for a green energy-based economy will lead to actual results. It remains to be seen whether $100-a-barrel oil will be motivation enough to have reality match the rhetoric.
Marco Mangelsdorf is president of ProVision Technologies Inc. of Hilo. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.
