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Solar power in Hawaii
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Solar power in Hawaii
The energy sector in Hawaii has rapidly adopted solar power due to the high costs of electricity, and good solar resources, and has one of the highest per capita rates of solar power in the United States. Hawaii's imported energy costs, mostly for imported petroleum and coal, are three to four times higher than the mainland, so Hawaii has motivation to become one of the highest users of solar energy. Hawaii was the first state in the United States to reach grid parity for photovoltaics. Its tropical location provides abundant ambient energy.
Much of Hawaii's solar capacity is distributed solar panels on individual homes and businesses. Hawaii's grid has had to deal with this unique situation by developing new technology for balancing the energy flows in areas with large amounts of solar power. In 2023, distributed solar produced 1,408 GWh while utility-scale solar produced 643 GWh. Hawaii had 1,808 MW of installed solar capacity in 2023. The largest utility-scale solar farm in Hawaii is the 60 MW Kuihelani Solar on Maui, which opened in 2024, and includes 240 MWhr of battery storage As of 2024, solar power produced 19.5% of Hawaii's electricity.
Hawaii has a renewable portfolio standard of 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2045. Hawaii had almost 200 MW of grid-connected photovoltaics in 2012. 16 MW of PV were installed in 2010, 40 MW in 2011, and 109 MW in 2012.
The electrical grids of the Hawaiian islands are each separate and relatively small. "Overbuilding" distributed solar in some areas has led to issues such as partial duck curve, although time-of-use pricing has reduced disadvantages. Such overbuilding led the Hawaiian Electrical Company (HECO) to stop its net metering program, which reimbursed solar consumers generously for the excess electricity they exported back to the grid, in 2015. As a result, residential solar installations fell as homeowners could no longer justify the costs because the payback time of the rooftop solar system made it cost-prohibitive. Two successor programs - customer grid supply (CGS) and customer self-supply - have proved less successful than net-metering did in promoting the growth of the industry. HECO has made connecting to the grid more difficult, leading to layoffs among the solar installation industry. In 2014, there were over 40,000 rooftop systems, over 10 percent of customers. A proposed grid interconnection between Oahu and Maui would have allowed more renewable energy but was rejected as too costly. By 2022, nearly a third of single family homes have solar panels.
HECO has limited homeowners' ability to install solar and connect to the grid. As of 2022, the only program available for private systems to supply power to the grid, Customer Grid Supply Plus, has limited capacity and requires inverters that meet HECO specifications. Approved inverters must allow the company to remotely turn off power transmission to the grid as needed. The utility has gone full steam ahead with its own plans to build utility-scale solar, approving 110 MW on July 27, 2017.
Cyanotech has a 0.5 MW solar array on its algae farm at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.
In October, 2018, Hawaii Electric Companies announced they were negotiating contracts on seven new solar farms to total 260 MW, each incorporating four hours of battery storage: These would be three projects on Oahu, two projects on Maui and two projects on Hawaii. In March 2019, six projects (totalling 247 MW and almost 1 GWh of battery storage) were approved, priced at 8-10c/kWh.
Sunrun is establishing a virtual power plant on Oahu which would use the energy stored in 1000 batteries located in individual houses with rooftop solar panels to deliver power in times of high energy demand on the grid. This system is expected to be online in 2020. These types of services provide not only additional power to the power grid but also add grid stability.
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Solar power in Hawaii
The energy sector in Hawaii has rapidly adopted solar power due to the high costs of electricity, and good solar resources, and has one of the highest per capita rates of solar power in the United States. Hawaii's imported energy costs, mostly for imported petroleum and coal, are three to four times higher than the mainland, so Hawaii has motivation to become one of the highest users of solar energy. Hawaii was the first state in the United States to reach grid parity for photovoltaics. Its tropical location provides abundant ambient energy.
Much of Hawaii's solar capacity is distributed solar panels on individual homes and businesses. Hawaii's grid has had to deal with this unique situation by developing new technology for balancing the energy flows in areas with large amounts of solar power. In 2023, distributed solar produced 1,408 GWh while utility-scale solar produced 643 GWh. Hawaii had 1,808 MW of installed solar capacity in 2023. The largest utility-scale solar farm in Hawaii is the 60 MW Kuihelani Solar on Maui, which opened in 2024, and includes 240 MWhr of battery storage As of 2024, solar power produced 19.5% of Hawaii's electricity.
Hawaii has a renewable portfolio standard of 40% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2045. Hawaii had almost 200 MW of grid-connected photovoltaics in 2012. 16 MW of PV were installed in 2010, 40 MW in 2011, and 109 MW in 2012.
The electrical grids of the Hawaiian islands are each separate and relatively small. "Overbuilding" distributed solar in some areas has led to issues such as partial duck curve, although time-of-use pricing has reduced disadvantages. Such overbuilding led the Hawaiian Electrical Company (HECO) to stop its net metering program, which reimbursed solar consumers generously for the excess electricity they exported back to the grid, in 2015. As a result, residential solar installations fell as homeowners could no longer justify the costs because the payback time of the rooftop solar system made it cost-prohibitive. Two successor programs - customer grid supply (CGS) and customer self-supply - have proved less successful than net-metering did in promoting the growth of the industry. HECO has made connecting to the grid more difficult, leading to layoffs among the solar installation industry. In 2014, there were over 40,000 rooftop systems, over 10 percent of customers. A proposed grid interconnection between Oahu and Maui would have allowed more renewable energy but was rejected as too costly. By 2022, nearly a third of single family homes have solar panels.
HECO has limited homeowners' ability to install solar and connect to the grid. As of 2022, the only program available for private systems to supply power to the grid, Customer Grid Supply Plus, has limited capacity and requires inverters that meet HECO specifications. Approved inverters must allow the company to remotely turn off power transmission to the grid as needed. The utility has gone full steam ahead with its own plans to build utility-scale solar, approving 110 MW on July 27, 2017.
Cyanotech has a 0.5 MW solar array on its algae farm at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.
In October, 2018, Hawaii Electric Companies announced they were negotiating contracts on seven new solar farms to total 260 MW, each incorporating four hours of battery storage: These would be three projects on Oahu, two projects on Maui and two projects on Hawaii. In March 2019, six projects (totalling 247 MW and almost 1 GWh of battery storage) were approved, priced at 8-10c/kWh.
Sunrun is establishing a virtual power plant on Oahu which would use the energy stored in 1000 batteries located in individual houses with rooftop solar panels to deliver power in times of high energy demand on the grid. This system is expected to be online in 2020. These types of services provide not only additional power to the power grid but also add grid stability.
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