On November 22nd, 2011, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (HPUC) approved the third tier of island state's feed-in tariff, which includes solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) systems up to 5 MW in size on the island of Oahu and 2.72 MW in size on Maui and Hawaii.

The new tier will pay rates of USD 0.197/kWh to 0.236 per kWh for PV generation between 500 kW and 5 MW, and USD 0.315 to 0.335 for CSP systems of the same size. In its approval of tier 3, the HPUC also made changes to tier 1 and tier 2 of the feed-in tariff.

FIT rates for PV well below retail electricity rates

PV and CSP systems eligible for the feed-in tariff must not be larger than 5 MW or 1% of the participating utility's peak load on its system. Tiers 1 and 2 were approved in October 2010.

The rates to be paid for PV generation are well below retail electric rates in the state of Hawaii, which have averaged USD 0.337/kWh for residential users and USD 0.314/kWh for commercial users in 2011 to date.

Tiers 1 and 2 unsuccessful

Accion Group, which serves as the independent observer for the feed-in tariff, released a report in December 2010 which showed that only 2.6 MW of applications for PV systems to participate in the program had been filed under tier 1 and tier 2. The program also received poor ratings by international organizations, including the World Future Council.

2011-12-02| Courtesy: Hawaii Public Utilities Commission | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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