Last week we warned about the Public Utility Commission’s circuit caps making it difficult for residents to go solar.

Since then, two more areas of Maui have reached the 15% ‘distributed generation threshold’ – Makawao and Ulumalu. The maps below show the saturation areas in detail. (Click the maps to see larger PDFs.)

As we said before, these circuit caps present a serious hurdle to individuals and businesses looking to save money and become more sustainable by going solar and avoiding the ever-increasing electricity costs here on our islands. This is not a catastrophic event, but it will become increasingly problematic.

For those effected by the PUC’s 15% peak regulation, we recommend organizing with your neighbors and contact your government representatives to urge them to make the PUC raise these limitations.

Don’t hesitate to call Sunetric at 262–6600 with any questions or concerns.

We are excited and proud to be illuminating this year’s Honolulu City Lights with its first-ever entirely solar-powered display.

From December 3rd to the 31st at Honolulu Hale, we’ll be illuminating “Santa Goes Solar”. “Santa Goes Solar” includes an 8-foot diorama of Santa’s eco-conscious workshop and village — made entirely out of Lego — in the Blue Planet Foundation’s 100-square-foot display. The Christmas trees adorning the display will be lit with an array of high-tech LED lights engineered by members of UH’s Solar Decathlon Team Hawaii and decorated with recycled incandescent bulb ornaments made by students from schools island-wide. The entire display will be powered by a state-of-the-art solar photovoltaic canopy that will be designed and built by Sunetric.

The display itself was constructed by members of the Lego Enthusiasts Association of Hawaii, with members of the University of Hawaii Solar Decathlon Team Hawaii engineering its array of high- tech LED lights. To power those lights, the solar canopy will produce 3.6 kWh a day, with an on- site battery pack storing up to 6.9 kWh to ensure night-time cheer. We designed and built the solar canopy, donating hours of engineering, design and construction work, as well as more than $5,000 in materials.

“We are excited to work with the Blue Planet Foundation and showcase some of Sunetric’s most innovative technologies to reduce the carbon footprint for this dazzling display. It’s an honor to put the green in the green and red at Santa’s village this holiday season, and highlight the importance of renewable energy in Hawaii.”

– Alex Tiller, Sunetric CEO

We’re making sure Santa’s elves can spread holiday cheer this season without having to burn the midnight oil!

Go to Honolulu Hale starting on December 3rd to see the Santa Goes Solar Honolulu City Lights display!

See more photos on the Sunetric Facebook page.

Update, November 30, 2011: Two more areas of Maui have been designated as having hit the peak for distributed generation.

According to a regulation set forth by the Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission, home- and businessowners wanting to add distributed generation —solar or wind power, for example — will need to undergo an ‘interconnection study’ if their property is within an area with a high number of homes or businesses with existing solar or wind power systems. The interconnection study is designed to determine the area circuit’s ‘ability to accept additional distributed generation (such as photovoltaics) without adverse effects on others connected to the circuit’.

Homeowners and businessowners wishing to add photovoltaics are unlikely to have their system permits issued in areas that already have high concentration of photovoltaics and other distributed generation sources.

Though the majority of the state still remains well below this threshold, we recently received word from the Maui Electric Company that Kahului, Maui is one of the areas whose circuit is nearing the PUC-established peak of 15% kVA (kilovolt-ampere) supplied by distributed generation like solar and wind power. This means, effectively, that home- and businessowners in Kahului will likely be unable to add photovoltaic systems to their properties.

The following map shows the parts of Kahului that are within the ‘saturation area’. (Click the map to see a larger PDF.)

Obviously, these circuit caps present a serious hurdle to individuals and businesses looking to save money and become more sustainable by going solar and avoiding the ever-increasing electricity costs here on our islands. This is not a catastrophic event, but it will become increasingly problematic.

With a peak of only 15% permitted distributed generation on a circuit, our state will never reach the goal of 40% renewable energy by 2030.

For those effected by the PUC’s 15% peak regulation, we recommend organizing with your neighbors and contact your government representatives to urge them to make the PUC raise these limitations.

You may call Sunetric at 262–6600 with any questions or concerns – we’d love to talk to you.

Sunetric came across handmade, high quality infant & toddler apparel with a SOLAR THEME that we couldn’t resist purchasing for our employees with little ones! Baby Bean’s signature cropped icons, hand stitched details & fun fabrics were a hit with our employees! Take a look at how cute our solar toddlers are! Thanks Baby Bean for making such fun solar shirts for the youngest members in our Sunetric family!

Head on over to the Sunetric Facebook page and leave a comment on our Solar Babies photo album (or on any of its photos) to enter our Baby Bean Solar Babies T-shirt Giveaway! We’ll announce a winner next week.

On top of that, all Sunetric Facebook fans and visitors can enjoy 10% off all All Things Bean products – just use the coupon code SOLARBABIES at your checkout at All Things Bean.

Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller is honored to have been asked to attend two separate APEC events this week.

We received a special invitation from Governor Neil Abercrombie, Speaker Calvin Say, and the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, to attend a luncheon reception and business forum at the Washington Palace for 150–200 CEOs from some of China’s largest corporations here for the APEC CEO conference.

In addition, Alex has been invited to the APEC Hong Kong Reception event at the Prince Edward Ballroom of the Hilton Waikiki.

Though our business is local, our mission is global – clean, affordable energy using the enormous resource we have in solar. It is a privilege to be invited to meet and speak with the many international delegates of APEC, and CEO Alex Tiller and all of Sunetric are grateful for the opportunity.

Sunetric CEO Alex Tiller and Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie meeting for APEC.

Every month, Sunetric introduces you to a member of the Sunetric family. The Sunetric commitment to top-notch service is a value shared by every member of our company, and each of our employees has something special to offer our customers and all of Hawaii. As a full-service solar integrator, our expertise spans every part of the consultation, design, and installation process.

Meet Victor Danley, Service Department Technician

As our Service Department Technician, Victor spends each day servicing past and current customers’ systems — it’s his job to make sure our customers’ systems are operating at optimum level. For Victor, each system’s service needs are unique — maintenance can include tightening wires, cleaning modules, testing voltages, and troubleshooting system monitoring.

After servicing the PV installation, I always answer any and all homeowner questions and offer a complimentary walkthrough of their system, explaining each component of the system and how it functions.   Victor started with Sunetric as our Lead Roof Installer, then transitioned into working with our electrical team. With his expertise in roof installations as well as the electrical components of the system, he was promoted to Service Department Technician in July.

Victor and Sunetric

Born and raised on Kauai, Victor noticed Sunetric installing a PV system on a home a few houses away from his. “I started talking with the foreman and when the opportunity to join the installation team was presented to me,” he says, “I gladly accepted.”

I take pride in have helping homeowners to go solar, and I’m particularly proud to have helped to train some of our lead installers. I shared everything I know with the installers that I trained, and they’ve turned out to be super, so it feels good to have helped train some of our best installers.

Victor loves the outdoors, surfing and fishing in his spare time. He’s also got a baby boy on the way — “I enjoy staying home to care of ‘mommy’, Samantha,” he says.  

The best part of working at Sunetric is the positive attitudes that the people I work with have. Everyone is always in a good spirits. I’m also proud to be working for the best solar company in Hawaii.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced today the results of the 2011 SCHOTT Solar Barometer (a national annual survey by the Kelton Research polling firm) demonstrate that “Americans overwhelmingly support the use and development of solar energy as well as federal investments for solar.”

For the fourth consecutive year, the survey found that about nine out of 10 Americans (89 percent) think it is important for the United States to develop and use solar energy. Support for solar is strong across the political spectrum with 80 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of Independents and 94 percent of Democrats agreeing that it is important for the United States to develop and use solar.

The survey also found that Americans want federal incentives for solar. More than eight out of 10 Americans (82 percent) support federal tax credits and grants for the solar industry similar to those that traditional sources of energy like oil, natural gas and coal have received for decades. Seventy-one percent of Republicans agree, as well as 82 percent of Independents and 87 percent of Democrats.

Furthermore, when asked to select an energy source they would financially support if they were in charge of U.S. energy policy, 39 percent of Americans chose solar over other sources such as natural gas (21 percent), wind (12 percent), nuclear (9 percent) and coal (3 percent). Among Independents, solar is more than twice as popular as any other energy source (43 percent for solar compared to 20 percent for natural gas).

Read the press release and see the details of the survey.

This is great news — in spite of endless coverage of the Solyndra bankruptcy, the results of the poll show that Americans strongly support solar and want their government to support it as well.

Eight out of 10 (82 percent) think it is important for the federal government to support U.S. solar manufacturing, and a majority of Independent voters (51 percent) think it is ‘extremely important.’"

We at Sunetric know the power of solar and the importance of its support nationally from both our government and our citizens. We will continue in our tireless mission to bring solar to the people of Hawaii and urge our representatives to help us in the fight for cleaner, cheaper power.