Hawaii solar adoption increased in 2022

Hawaii solar adoption increased in 2022
By Sophia Compton – Reporter, Pacific Business News
Feb 21, 202

Solar installations increased across Hawaii in 2022, with the number of private photovoltaic systems on Hawaiian Electric’s grids rising 4.8% from 2021. At the end of last year, 96,912 total systems — most of which are rooftop — were installed statewide. This includes 66,164 on Oahu, 15,390 on Maui, and 15,358 on Hawaii Island, according to a recent announcement from Hawaiian Electric.

“When rates go up, as they did last year, that always drives interest in rooftop solar,” a spokesperson for Hawaiian Electric told PBN in an email. “The Battery Bonus program on Oahu and Maui and the state and federal tax incentives are also attracting homeowners who may have put off doing solar until now.”

The electricity provider’s Battery Bonus program, which launched on Oahu in 2021 and became available to Maui customers last year, offers a one-time cash incentive and monthly bill credits to those who add energy storage to a rooftop solar system, according to Hawaiian Electric.

PV permit numbers also reached an eight-year high in 2022, according to Marco Mangelsdorf, responsible managing employee of ProVision Solar. He told PBN he has been tracking photovoltaic PV permit numbers across the four counties via its databases for the last 14 years.

“We’ve been on an upward trajectory as far as PV adoption with last year hitting the highest number in eight years,” Mangelsdorf said.

Reasons for this, he agreed, include high electricity prices and financial incentives such as federal and state tax credits. Other reasons include the proliferation of energy as well as people’s “overall desire to make their home more self-reliant/ self-sufficient in the face of uncertainty,” according to Mangelsdorf.

“There’s ongoing demand and ongoing necessity for the state to continue down this path of weaning ourselves off this very dangerous dependence that we have on imported oil,” he said. “… We’re no longer importing coal, but we’re still importing a tremendous amount of oil to power our economy.”