As many as 1,500 Big Island households could receive credits to lower their energy bills through an effort to develop solar installations in Naalehu and North Kona.
In late 2022, Hawaiian Electric selected seven solar energy project proposals across Hawaii to launch its “shared solar” program, wherein qualified customers can benefit from solar energy even if they aren’t able to install solar panels on their properties.
Three of those projects will be located on the Big Island: a 176-acre solar array located on private agricultural-zoned land west of Naalehu and just south of the Mamalahoa Highway, and a pair of arrays on about 100 acres of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands land in Kalaoa just across the Queen Kaahumanu Highway from Wawaloli Beach Park.
Together, all three projects will contribute 9 megawatts of power to Hawaiian Electric’s Big Island power grid.
All three projects — as well as the other four on Maui and Oahu — will be developed by Nexamp Solar LLC, a 15-year-old solar company with projects throughout the mainland.
Nexamp Communications Director Keith Hevenor said the shared solar concept — also called community-based renewable energy, or CBRE — has been implemented in some mainland states such as Illinois, New York, Minnesota, Maine and others.
“There is a big misconception people have about the concept,” Hevenor said. “But we’re not delivering power directly to homes. The power we generate, that goes straight to Hawaiian Electric’s power grid.”
Mike Billet, Nexamp’s director of business development, said qualified customers can receive monthly credits to reduce their energy bills, estimating that based on average energy consumption, each of the three projects could benefit about 500 households.
The shared solar program requires that 60% of beneficiaries are low- to moderate-income residential customers, Billet said. Those customers must have a household income within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s threshold for low- to moderate-income, or benefit from a range of government assistance programs.
The remaining 40% of the program’s beneficiaries must be nonprofit organizations, which Billet said includes government agencies and 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organizations.
Billet said priority will be granted to qualified customers located near the solar farms.
“We were generally interested in sites without any cultural or environmental impact, as well as places with limited or no visibility, because we know a lot of people, maybe they don’t want to look at too many solar panels all the time,” Billet said.
The three Big Island projects have guaranteed commercial operation start dates, Billet said: the Naalehu solar farm is scheduled to go online June 2025, wand the Kalaoa farms will start operations in November 2025. In the meantime, both projects still need to go through the permitting process and environmental impact studies.
Residents can learn more about the projects at a pair of public meetings later this month. Information about the Kalaoa projects will be available from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. this Thursday at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority in Kailua-Kona, and a meeting about the Naalehu project will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Jan. 26 at the Naalehu Community Center.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
