The sunny state’s solar-plus-storage park 

The sunny state of Hawaii can potentially have a saving cost of $3 to $7 billion by accelerating its transition to solar. It’s been validated by the experience of Kauai, where a new solar-plus-storage park reduces the island’s electricity rates. A new state law in Hawaii commits to pursuing renewables aggressively. Hawaii’s legislature set a goal of 100 percent renewables by 2045 and the Hawaiian Electric Industries is chasing a state-approved plan to fulfill this goal. Studies have shown that moving faster towards this aim could save Hawaii $3 to $7 billion between 2020 and 2045. The savings range from $3 to $7 billion, reflects two points: 1) moderate renewables costs combined with low oil prices (for $3 billion in savings); and 2) low renewables costs combined with high oil prices (for $7 billion in savings). Kauai has shed new light on this by relying on battery storage  and to store solar power for later release onto the grid.  
 

Kauai is a member-owned co-op utility

Kauai is a member-owned co-op utility providing power displaying how to adopt to renewables quicker. It’s advanced from 8 percent renewables in 2011 to 44 percent now, which is  27 percent above for the rest of Hawaii. The island wants to develop 50 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2023, and 70 percent by 2030. The cost of electricity from a new solar-plus-storage system on Kauai will be 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. 
 

Customers receive lower electric costs

Hawaii’s governor signed a law stating that by 2020, the utilities commission are obligated to create performance incentives and penalties to tie an electric utility’s revenues to its achievement on performance metrics. This breaks the link between investment levels and allowed revenues. Two of the key performance measures affordability of customer electric bills and rapid integration of renewable energy. In response, Hawaiian Electric has been working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to research ways to modernize its island grids to incorporate low-cost solar. These steps lead to its happier customers receiving lower electric costs while Hawaiian Electric could receive performance incentives under Hawaii’s new state law.

If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.