Since the Oahu rule went into effect three months ago, it has hurt business and “deflated the movement,” Wang said. He said he was there to tell “a cautionary tale” about the difficulties of fighting a monolithic utility. Solar Market Insight Conference in a packed hotel ballroom in San Diego. “I am from the future,” Wang told solar executives gathered for the U.S. The Oahu rule created a dispute between the island’s solar power companies and Hawaiian Electric.Ĭharles Wang, co-owner of Hawaii ECO Project, a small solar company, told a conference in California last week that the clouds over Oahu’s rooftop solar growth foreshadow conflicts between the solar power industry and regulated utilities on the U.S. It was a hot topic at a solar industry conference last week: how to foster the growth of rooftop solar power while easing the concerns of regulated utilities that see its rise as a threat. The conflict is the latest variation on what was a controversial issue this year in top solar markets California and Arizona. What’s happening in Hawaii is a sign of battles to come in the rest of the United States, solar industry and electric utility executives said. “They are acting like they got caught with their pants down, saying, ‘We don’t know how to deal with this.’” “We didn’t anticipate having to pay HECO when we took this on,” Adams said. In areas like Mililani, where Adams lives, the utility’s power circuits have reached a threshold where it would be dangerous to add PV systems without investing in upgrades to the distribution system. The regulation requires homeowners on Oahu - Hawaii’s most populous island - to get the utility’s approval before installing photovoltaic (PV) rooftop solar systems. ![]() Her home improvement ran afoul of a rule that went into effect in September. ![]() She never dreamed that she would have to stop the project, get the Hawaiian Electric Company’s permission before she could proceed, and possibly help pay for any upgrades to her neighborhood’s electricity circuits to handle the extra load. A view of houses with solar panels in the Mililani neighbourhood on the island of Oahu in Mililani, Hawaii, December 15, 2013.
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