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Thursday, July 17th, 2014

Solar Bottlenecks: How Hawaii Is Paving the Way

Author:     MIKE ITO
Source:     CleanTechnica
Publication Date:     July 16th, 2014
 Link: Solar Bottlenecks: How Hawaii Is Paving the Way
Stephan:   Hawaii, with the highest electric power costs in the country, is now facing what will soon become a struggle in every state -- the last ditch effort of the old centralized utility monopoly struggling to maintain a stranglehold on power. As this report makes clear it is going to be a nasty non-holds-barred fight. In the end the utilities will lose, I think, but there will be a lot of pain and blood on the road to non-carbon energy.

On Monday June 2nd, President Obama struck a decisive blow for the environment and against coal power. The plan aims to reduce CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 30%. The EPA has been given the authority to enforce this reduction limiting power plant activities through the Clean Air Act of 1970. States are required to submit a plan by 2016 to achieve this goal by 2030. This new legislation highlights the importance of renewable energy use in the creation of electricity, making alternatives such as solar photovoltaic more vital than ever.
The State of Hawaii

Hawaii leads the nation in electricity costs. Costs range from 33.36 cents per kWh on Oahu to 44.64 cents per kWh on Lanai. The US National average is 11-12 cents per kWh. That means electric bills are over $175 per month or higher for the average Hawaii resident. Of this energy, 14% is generated by coal and the vast majority is generated by burning other fossil fuels, such as petroleum.

In order to combat these high costs and reduce environmental emissions, the state and federal governments have created a number of tax breaks to encourage the installation of solar energy on the islands. With a number of […]

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