Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) recently announced that it will no longer handle rebates for customers who buy and install solar energy systems or energy efficient appliances. Instead, that administrative function will be handled by San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), beginning July 1.
Science Applications, a provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and solutions, has helped create innumerable energy-efficiency, demand reduction, and sustainability programs for private and public companies.
Acting as the Public Benefits Fee Administrator, SAIC will also handle the rebate process for Energy Star appliances, solar water heating, and compact fluorescent bulb programs. Hawaiian Electric will continue to operate the EnergyScout™ program, which reduces electric supply to water heaters during emergencies or periods of peak demand.
Officials at HECO have said that customers shouldn’t notice much difference in the way the rebate programs are handled and administered. Nonetheless, the constantly changing landscape of renewable energy rebates and tax incentives, and the constantly changing roster of players – not to mention the numerous and varied regulations governing such installations from state to state – has many who might otherwise invest in a solar energy system viewing the whole process with dismay.
Recent estimates show that the added cost of 10 to 20 hours of paperwork in a solar energy installation, for example, can add $1 per watt to overall costs, and Scientific American's George Musser has chronicled his own permitting and rebate nightmare.
“I’m struggling to see how solar is ever going to gain traction until the subsidies and paperwork are streamlined.”
It’s this paper nightmare that has driven the startup and expansion of companies like SAIC and Oregon-based Sunlight Solar Energy, which offers to install a grid-tied solar energy system and do the paperwork for customers. In fact, some companies skip the actual solar and just do paperwork, like Maryland-based U.S. Photovoltaics Inc.. Their fee? A mere 25 percent of the overall cost of a system.
Hawaiian Electric Co. which scored seventh on a list of the Total Solar Megawatts installed category (with 3.54 watts), according to the Solar Electric Power Association’s 2008 survey, also scored sixth in the Total Solar Watts per Customer category with 13.6 watts.
On October 20, 2008, Hawaii’s three utilities, Hawaiian Electric Company, Maui Electric Company and Hawaii Electric Light Company, signed the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, which requires them to supply 40 percent of electricity requirements (and a whopping 70 percent of overall energy requirements, including transportation), by 2030 using clean energy sources like solar, wind, and hydro. It’s a big step for a state currently dependent on fossil fuels for more than 90 percent of its energy.