By Maui Solar Project (No. 259 on the 2014 Top Solar Contractors list) Vice President Joshua Porter and Operations Manager Emily Sullivan
With endless amounts of sun, Hawaii is an ideal place for PV systems. Our island community believes strongly in caring for the land or the “Aina,” as it is called. One would think that solar is booming and in many ways it is. We do have one of the highest adoption rates in the country. The community understands the importance and effectiveness of home PV and are installing as fast as possible. Electricity rates in Maui are among the highest in the world, upwards of $0.40/kWh, where the national average is around $0.12. An average monthly electric bill can easily run $300 here. But with solar that cost is cut to just an $18 dollar connection fee. Long-term savings are staggering, typically, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars over the warrantied system life, making a huge difference in a family’s ability to manage costs.
Photo Courtesy of Maui Solar Project
The utilities on the Hawaiian Islands have struggled to move swiftly in required grid upgrades to handle the additional loads during the daytime energy curve when solar is producing. The result has been significant delays in getting the utilities’ approval for home PV systems. It is a frustrating process for many, taking some over a year to get approval from the utility to install their system.
At Maui Solar Project we have found that excellent communication with our clients has helped ease the process. We keep an updated calendar marking each milestone the client is reaching through the utility so that we can keep them informed. Our clients stay abreast of the latest changes through social media and email updates that we manage monthly.
“Grid-saturation,” as it is called, is a dynamic process. As upgrades are made to the grid we see new areas previously saturated that become available for solar. We sometimes find that simply resubmitting a client’s documents at these key periods can make all the difference and often get their system permitted quickly.
One of the great aspects of working in an environment like Maui is that we have the chance to witness our community shift from fossil fuels one family at a time. We’ve found that if we work together as a team and do our very best to look out for the interests of our clients from the outset, everyone can get a solar system on their home. SPW