With the nation's highest electricity rates and plentiful sunlight, Hawaii should be a leader in solar electricity generation, say two San Franciscans who promoted a $100 million solar bond initiative there last year. Consultants see Hawaii as
leader in solar power
By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comThe solar bond was a government-issued revenue bond that will be entirely paid off by the cost-savings reaped from solar energy and energy efficiency installations on city buildings, said Ed Smeloff, power policy director for San Francisco. No taxpayer dollars will be spent.
Smeloff and David Hochschild, a co-founder of Vote Solar, were in Honolulu last week to spread the word about the feasibility of cities taking on large, high-visibility solar projects.
Vote Solar evolved from the grass-roots campaign for the San Francisco ballot initiative and now is a nonprofit agency consulting with other governments that want to do the same thing, Hochschild said.
The duo decided to come to Hawaii after Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono floated the idea of Hawaii being the first state to consider solar bonds during a gubernatorial debate sponsored by the Sierra Club.
But the idea of going solar isn't a political one, Sierra Club Hawaii Director Jeff Mikulina said. By providing electricity with no greenhouse gases, lower energy bills and less dependence on imported oil, "everyone benefits in the end, and there's no burden on the taxpayers," he said.
"Looking at the amount of sunlight we have and the electric rates that we pay, it would be even more cost-effective in Hawaii" than San Francisco, Mikulina said. "There's no reason we can't. The only barriers are political and institutional."
Over the years, photovoltaic electricity generation has decreased in price to about $3.70 per watt generated, Hochschild said. That's down from $100 a watt in 1976 and $9.83 a watt in 1986, he said.
The cost has finally come within the range of economic sense when compared with the cost of oil, Hochschild said.
With more available sunlight in the United States than any other nation on Earth, "we are the Persian Gulf for solar energy," he added.
San Francisco's first project, to be completed in early 2003, is a $7.4 million job on the Moscone Convention Center which will produce 688 kilowatts of electricity by photovoltaics and, with energy efficiency retrofits, reduce electricity usage by 25 to 36 percent, Smeloff said.
Planned projects include a sewage treatment facility, port property, the airport, schools and city reservoirs, Smeloff said.
San Francisco's goal is to be generating 50 megawatts with solar by 2012, he said.
One of the benefits of governments committing to large-scale projects is that their purchases of solar technology actually will help bring down costs for smaller consumers, Hochschild said.
