Hey this is Adam again with The Solar Truth
and we have an interesting topic today,
it's a solar in Hawaii. So why was solar banned in Hawaii?
Well we're gonna get details of what that means and and what really the truth is
behind that. There's been different rumors in the past and people have been
kind of confused what can they do what can't they do and why this happened.
So the history of solar in Hawaii is the first thing that we kind of need to understand.
And back in 2010 they were going to ban solar.
So there was actually a proposed bill to ban solar.
And Hawaii electric "HECO" wanted to like have this
proposed. So that got rejected in 2010 but shortly after that Hawaii Electric
had problems and kind of made things difficult for solar. And it wasn't just
because they were losing money. You know that's not really what this is about.
This is really about safety. And as an electrician like you know it this . . a lot
of people this doesn't make sense to, but when they realize how the electric grid
works it starts making sense. You know the electric grid is kind of like a big
battery and it is balanced you know you have an even flow of energy and it kind
of goes up and down you know you have to produce as much power as people are
using and then there is some storage that goes on there too. But the problem
with solar is it kind of throws that off. So basically Hawaii has the most
expensive electricity so . . . in the United States they import petroleum and coal,
there's a lot of a lot of importation makes it very expensive you know coal is
normally pretty pretty cheap but it's not cheap if you have to import it on a
boat thousands of miles and stuff. So the electric ends up being about three to
Four times the cost in Hawaii as in most of the rest of the United States.
Probably just about twice as much as California cuz it's pretty expensive too.
But as far as kilowatt prices go you know you're . . . the cost in Hawaii are about
32 to 65, 70 cents a kilowatt what that results in is someone
my kind of a normal three-bedroom small house you know that would have $100 bill
and most of the US, has a $400 bill in Hawaii. So solar is gonna pay it
for itself a lot better you produce the same amount of energy and you know you
can offset your whole bill. It's how it used to work, but then they had too much
solar. So the duck curve that we already talked about a little bit. Now you know
you can go back to that video on on "How Electric Batteries Can Save You Money"
And we talk a little bit about the "Duck Curve". The Duck Curve is solar's effect on the grid. And solar
produces more power and that reduces the demand on the grid and then it goes up
really fast and peaks now at a later time instead of earlier, so your peak of
demand for solar and for energy that the grid has to produce is now from like
4:00 to 9:00 p.m. So Hawaii is a small island so they have another set of
problems. They can't trade energy that they you know are very limited on their
infrastructure so they actually in 2000 I think 13 or 14. Yeah 2014 tried to
connect Maui to O‘ahu. Now that's quite a quite a . . . you know a big feat that they were
trying to do there. You know imagine running huge electric wires like
underwater I guess you know - from Maui to O‘ahu. And they decided it was
gonna be too expensive, so they did not do that. Instead they end up making
people get a permit through through Hawai Electric. And whatever Hawaii
utility company as well as the city or county before they did solar. So you have some
people like this lady here.
3 years to have solar panel installed.
That waited for
multiple years and then, Hawaii decided to not let you . . . they took away net energy
metering. So in 2015 - our other video explains explains Net Energy Metering.
They took that away. So your meter can't spin backwards anymore and
in fact you're not allowed to send any solar energy back to the grid
in Hawaii because that duck curve. If that belly of the duck gets below zero
the grid has some big problems. You know the grid can possibly start exploding
transformers and you know - who knows what kind of problems you know it's just not
gonna be good, So so they can't allow any more solar to
back feed the grid otherwise when the when there's really nice sunny days that
aren't too hot, which is pretty common in Hawaii. Not many people are using
air-conditioning and stuff. Then too much solar you might produce more than the
whole state uses, and there's there goes below zero and there's those problems so
now instead of sending your energy back to the grid, solar is not
technically banned, but you're not allowed to send any solar back to the grid . . . now.
So you have to get a battery, and you have to charge that battery during the day so
on the solar instead of that belly of the curve they goes that power goes into
the battery. So then that curve kind of levels out and then instead of that
demand that's created in the evening you use that battery power so you know that
duck curve kind of ends up balancing out and becomes more even. Making the grid a
lot more stable and functional. So in summary you can currently get solar in
Hawaii. In most cases I mean you do have to get approval and you do have to go
through Hawaii electric first and sometimes that wait can be like one to four
years. It's gotten and better and they're pretty actually solar friendly now. But
that you require you to have a battery and not send energy back to the grid so
there's a lot of limitations it's not as easy as it used to be. You know people
that got solar there a long time ago they're they're pretty well off - you know
they kind of you get grandfathered in for a lot of those old rates. Hawaii
Electric is also looking at you know well actually they looked at not paying
you as much for solar power but then they basically just didn't pay you
anything for solar power now. Which because you can't send it back to the
grid, that's that's what net energy metering is and they got rid of that. So
you need to charge your battery with solar during the day and then use it at
night and that's how it works. Any additional power you use is going
come from the grid still, and any additional power that the solar could
produce when your battery's full is kind of gonna be lost. But it still is a
really good payback because of how much Hawaii Electric charges it's just the
additional component of the battery which costs more, and the having to use
it which takes your efficiency down a little bit. And sometimes your panels are
just sitting there with a full battery and no power being used and now you know
your meter can't spin backwards so you're not saving money for that those
you know few times. So that's about it I will see you next time on The
Solar Truth . . . thanks.
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