Hawaiian Electric recently announced it has selected one project on Oahu and four projects on Hawaii Island in the second phase of its shared solar, or community-based renewable energy, program.
Community-based renewable energy allows subscribers without privately-owned rooftop solar to subscribe to a local renewable energy facility and receive credits on their monthly electricity bill. On Oahu, an 8.5 megawatt solar plus battery storage project being developed by Savio Solar Power Solutions was selected. On Hawaii Island, two 0.5 megawatt solar projects are being co-developed by Pivot Energy & Arion Energy, and two 2.5 megawatt solar projects are being developed by Waikoloa Community Solar, according to Hawaiian Electric.
The Oahu CBRE project, Savio Solar Maili, is the first large-scale solar project on the island designed for long-term community ownership and was created with the input of community members, according to developer Peter Savio.
"Right now most of our solar farms are owned by large entities, which basically means all the benefits are flowing out of state," he said. "So none of that money stays in Hawaii to help solve our cost of living or help the community. What we're proposing is changing the present structure."
Savio realized that inequity around rooftop solar could be solved by building a large-scale solar farm and selling partial ownership of the facility, he told PBN.
He added, "Solar favors the wealthy. You have to own a house, you have to own a roof you can put your solar on. We're going to build a solar park and condominiumize it, so you can come in and say I need to buy 10 panels to buy my electric bill. So, if this project has 3,000 homes, we will have 3,000 owners."
Hawaiian Electric evaluated the proposals through a bidding evaluation process, and will now work with the selected developers to finalize the 20-year contracts. The projects are expected to be online in 2025 or 2026, according to the electric services company.
In November 2022, Hawaiian Electric selected seven solar projects on Oahu, Hawaii Island and Maui to be the first on each island to offer the shared solar program.
