{"id":1542441,"date":"2024-03-08T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-08T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=632654"},"modified":"2024-03-08T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T09:30:00","slug":"how-changes-to-hawai%ca%bbis-home-battery-program-could-hinder-its-clean-energy-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/08\/how-changes-to-hawai%ca%bbis-home-battery-program-could-hinder-its-clean-energy-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"How changes to Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s home battery program could hinder its clean energy transition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This story was produced by <\/em>Grist<\/em><\/a> and co-published with <\/em>Honolulu Civil Beat<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s main utility is poised to radically revise how it compensates households for the power their batteries send to the grid, a move critics fear will stunt the potential for using that energy to prevent blackouts and hinder the state\u2019s transition to 100 percent clean energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawaiian Electric, which serves every island except Kaua\u02bbi, will launch the Bring Your Own Device program on April 1, offering households incentives to deliver power during peak demand. But the compensation is nowhere near what customers who joined an earlier battery program received, and some solar advocates worry it\u2019s so low that people may not enroll at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That would be a missed opportunity to help build a modern energy system, said Rocky Mould, executive director of the Hawai\u02bbi Solar Energy Association. \u201cIt\u2019s depriving us of the potential for a really viable grid service program that would benefit all. We should be moving as fast as we can to get off oil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The changes come amid a broader debate over how much to pay customers for power drawn from their solar panels and batteries. Several states, most notably California, are deeply cutting their so-called net metering programs<\/a>, which are meant to boost solar adoption. However, Puerto Rico\u2019s legislature recently voted unanimously to preserve the archipelago\u2019s payment scheme<\/a> until at least 2030, deeming it essential to meeting its clean energy goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The utilities and regulators favoring reductions say the credits are too costly for the ratepayers who subsidize them \u2014 a point Hawaiian Electric made to Grist in supporting the changes. Supporters of incentives argue that rollbacks can impede solar\u2019s growth, prolong dependence on fossil fuels, and undermine energy resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hawai\u02bbi is under a legal mandate to use only clean energy by 2045, and has long been a leader in rooftop solar adoption, which comprises almost half of Hawaiian Electric\u2019s renewable generation portfolio<\/a>. But when it slashed compensation rates in 2015, installations dropped by more than half. The market recovered as customers found a new way to save money: Adding batteries and consuming stored power at night rather than buying it from the utility. Nearly every photovoltaic system installed now includes at least one battery<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n