BLUE PLANET FOUNDATION CONTROVERSY HOW TO

No additional solar could be connected to the grid, period. In 2015, they put the brakes on the state’s wildly popular residential rooftop solar program. As the threat of grid overloads grew larger, Hawaiian leaders faced an impossible decision. but there are no nearby states to absorb the excess power. In 2014, Hawaii had the highest solar power per capita in the U.S. Fortunately, at least in 2017, nearby Arizona was able to off-take the excess power so California electricity customers were spared blackouts. Twentieth century grid technology isn’t smart enough to tell the solar panels to disconnect and it will take years for batteries to reach the scale and price points to temporarily store the excess power. In one of the big ironies of clean energy and traditional grid design, excess power risks tripping grid circuit breakers and creating cascading blackouts. This turns out to be a very serious problem. During a handful of long, sunny days in 2017, solar panels across the state were actually generating more power than the entire state was consuming.

Yes, it’s possible to have too much solar. We will never sell your email or spam you. By 2017, one in every three single family homes in Hawaii had rooftop solar, making the state America’s local energy leader. The state made it even more attractive by crediting back excess solar power against the homeowners’ bills. The adoption rate of residential solar took off. Even though solar was far more expensive back then, the price of electricity from the grid was even higher. About a decade ago, that’s just what Hawaiians started doing. When the price of grid electricity is so much higher than the price of solar panels, it becomes the perfect incentive for homeowners to become local energy pioneers. Like most islands, Hawaii’s grid has historically powered almost entirely on oil shipped in from the mainland. These high costs result from the state having no native fossil fuel resources. Over the years, it has been as much as triple the average price of the rest of the country. Hawaii has the highest electricity prices in the U.S. Electricity is so expensive, it’s cheaper to make it yourself Because, when it comes to the the grid’s future, Hawaii is already there.

BLUE PLANET FOUNDATION CONTROVERSY HOW TO

As power industry leaders contemplate how to solve them, they can look to Hawaii. In the coming years, the world’s electric grids will face daunting challenges. Jeff described the state’s unique position when he told me, Hawaii is like a “postcard from our future.”

Much of his career has been spent helping shape the policies that have made Hawaii the leader in clean energy. Jeff Mikulina is the Executive Director of Hawaii’s Blue Planet Foundation. Hawaii is a postcard from our electric future In fact, the state is already leading the country in clean energy and they have ambitious plans to achieve a 100% clean energy grid by 2045. They are disproving conventional wisdom by showing that intermittent power from the sun and wind can successfully provide affordable and reliable electric service.Ĭlean energy grids may work for small islands, but can their success scale to mainland-sized communities? Can clean energy provide affordable, reliable power for the homes, offices and industries for a million people? The leaders of Hawaii believe so.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how small islands are pioneering the path to clean energy. Island power grids are a microcosm of the vastly larger grids that criss-cross the planet.

Blue planet foundation controversy