By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
What Happened: Hawaii’s energy storage incentive legislation – Senate Bill (SB) 2100 – was adjourned “sine die,” or “without a day,” meaning it will get no more hearings in the current session.
SolarWakeup’s View: Hawaii, with its abundant sunshine and high electricity prices – the penalty they pay for living in paradise – has made the island a hotbed for solar development since the industry’s early days. With an aggressive goal of reaching 100% clean energy by 2045, the solar industry has grown exponentially, and the Aloha State currently boasts one of the highest solar penetration rates in the country.
But with that development has come speed bumps, including a sudden elimination of net metering that nearly strangled the industry, although development has continued, albeit more slowly, under other utility programs. Recently, the state has been trying to figure out how to integrate storage into its solar industry to encourage more self-consumption and less excess electricity export to the grid.
One of the most recent attempts to integrate storage was Senate Bill (SB 2100), which would have changed the current solar tax credit system into a solar + storage tax credit system.
Unfortunately, SB 2100 failed to get out of committee during this legislative session, postponing any hearings on the bill indefinitely and effectively killing any chance it had of passage.
The problem Hawaii faces isn’t entirely unique. It’s tough to sell incentives in a market that has scaled so rapidly and where prices have fallen so precipitously – and continue to do so. But it’s hard to imagine a world where the state can reach its goal of powering itself entirely by renewable energy by 2045 without something like SB 2100 in place.
Let’s hope that the bill comes back next session and that Hawaii sees its way clear to continue its clean-energy leadership by passing it.
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