On Friday, January 27, 2012, Sunetric turned eight years old and entered our ninth year of business. (And we celebrated! See photos from our party at Kailua Beach Park.) On this auspicious occasion, we want to take a moment to remember where we’ve been and take a look at where we are.

2004 Sunetric Founded

25 years old

At age 25, Sean Mullen, an idealistic adventurer, moved to Hawaii from Pennsylvania with his future wife Beth-Ann. He kept an open-minded attitude and held firmly to the philosophy that people should leave the world a much better place than the way they found it. He and Beth founded Sunetric in 2004.

Having quickly earned the reputation of being the top solar design and installation company in the state, Sunetric experienced a huge demand for its services early on.

In 2008, Sunetric completed projects at Kona Commons Shopping Center, the largest roof-mounted photovoltaic installation in Hawaii, and Wilcox Memorial Hospital on Kauai, the second-largest solar farm in Hawaii.

2008 Landmark Projects

2010 Expansion

In 2010, with an expanding team and a growing portfolio, Sunetric moved into a much larger, custom-built joint office and warehouse facility in Kailua. They also hired senior management and support, including CEO Alex Tiller.

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2011 The Biggest Year Yet

$130M Annual Sales

Fivefold Increase from 2010

4 Offices

In November, Sunetric opened three new mainland offices in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Denver. Due in part to this expansion, as well as continued growth in Hawaii, the company expects to have 240 full time employees by the end of 2012; a 71 percent increase from its current 140 employees.

In 2011, Sunetric performed the following installations and photovoltaic projects:

505 Residential
Systems

42 Commercial
Systems

45,911 kWh Generated Daily
by Those Systems

And those 557 projects will generate:

$2.3M Yearly Savings

$12M 2011 Customer Savings

Highlighting a few of 2011′s milestone commercial projects:

Three feed-in tariff (FIT) projects completed. A 175 kW PV system for Queen Bee, a 14.8 kW system for Ideal Construction, and a 39.4 kW system for ROIZ, LCC warehouse on Maui, which is estimated to generate more than $15,000 in revenue annually, with the total return on investment expected by 2016.

$15K Annual Revenue
At ROIZ, LLC

420 Barrels of Oil Saved Annually at BMW

BMW is Sunetric’s sixth car dealership PV installation. The solar array at BMW’s Kapiolani Blvd. location will generate more than 21,000 kWH of energy per month.

Three Power Purchase Agreement installations in 2011, bringing Sunetric’s total to 15. Waialae Elementary’s 133.4 kW system was installed with no upfront cost. The system is expected to generate more than 21,000 kWH of energy every month.

$11K Yearly Electric Savings
At Waialae Elementary

$12,600,000 Customer’s Money Saved in 2011

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2004→2012

30MW Installed Since 2004

40% of Net-Metered PV in Hawaii

133,333 Panels

70 Miles of solar

2,300+ Satisfied Customers

100+ Commercial Projects

6,720 ft² Office

5,440 ft² Warehouse

140 Employees

445,500 Barrels of Oil Saved from Import to Hawaii

290,250,000 Pounds of CO₂ Emissions Prevented

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All of us at Sunetric want to extend a hearty thanks to you for making these eight years so wonderful. We have loved working you and can’t wait to keep making Hawaii more sustainable with your help. Here’s to another great eight years and many more for the team at Sunetric and all of our customers.

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Calculations based on EPA formulae and data from the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting.

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.

This month, meet Anthony Garrett, our multi-talented Inside Sales and Customer Service Coordinator.

People Person

As our Inside Sales and Customer Service Coordinator, Anthony processes all customer contracts that come into the company and screens each contract to make sure everything we need to proceed with installation is included. Anthony tells us it’s the perfect job:

“I am currently working within the company to fine tune our customer service department and interdepartmental communication. I aspire to become the director of customer service for Sunetric because I enjoy working with our customers and would like to utilize my customer service background – I love people. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to talk with customers on a regular basis to solve problems quickly and efficiently and I strive to improve communications at Sunetric, both with our customers and my coworkers.”

Communication in All Its Forms

Born and raised in southern New Jersey, Anthony’s passion for environmentalism drew him to working for Greenpeace before coming to Sunetric. He is currently pursuing solar product training through SunPower. But there’s more to Anthony than a love of Earth and working with people – he regularly performs slam poetry and is considering going back to school to pursue a degree in literature. He’s even put his talents to work at Sunetric:

“My proudest moment at Sunetric was seeing the inspiration that I was able to provide to the Boys and Girls Club in Kailua when I was a guest performer for a poetry slam we held with the students.”

His favorite part of working at Sunetric are the opportunities he gets to go to schools and perform for students in an educational setting, allowing him to be a part of our community outreach efforts while utilizing his creativity. He recently came with us to Waialae Elementary School to kick off their Energy Art & Poetry Contest and the kids loved it.

Anthony performs spoken word, slam poetry, and underground hip-hop as part of his group Saturated pHat three nights a week – in town, Waikiki, and in Sunetric’s homebase of Kailua. You can catch Anthony, who goes by Epitome MC on stage, performing at Indigo, The Dragon Upstairs, Boardriders, and Jazz Minds in Honolulu. He also enjoys writing, working out, and playing hacky-sack. He also works as a personal trainer and makes it a point to go to the beach at least once a week!

Hawaii is more dependent on foreign oil than any other state. We are also on track to get 40 percent of our energy from renewable energy sources by 2030. Energy diets make it easier to meet renewable energy goals—steps now to reduce energy use will lead to a more sustainable Hawaii.

Let’s face it. Energy consumption is expensive and can be very harmful to the environment. Air pollution and contaminants in ground water from electrical generation by burning fossil fuels are just the tip of the iceberg in the environmental impact from fossil power. While many people are going solar in the 21st century, it can be expensive to install and maintain solar power systems if governmental or other regional incentives are not in place. Arrangements in which customers can generate solar energy and sell it back to the grid have often ended up being profitable for home- and business-owners alike. But harvesting energy from the sun is not the only way to manage a sustainable energy diet. There are ways that energy consumers, even those who are not in a position to make a big adjustment in their source of energy production, can have a positive impact on their “energy diet.”

Changing your energy diet is like changing how you eat – new habits must replace old ones.

Buy Environmentally Friendly, Buy Local

It is no secret that power plants produce huge quantities of emissions that go into the air and ground. However, chemical products such as cleaners and detergents at home can also get out into the environment. There are environmentally friendly products you can buy or other natural methods can be implemented using simple household materials. Instead of purchasing imported items, you can buy ones made locally, lessening the energy consumption and environmental effects of product transport and fuel use. If enough people follow this rule, the results can be measurable in the environment. This can be tricky for Hawaiians, since importing from Japan and importing from the continental US both require energy-intensive transportation – but there are a lot of island-grown and island-made alternatives that we can choose, which reduce our need for environment-damaging imports.

• The Hawaii Department of Agriculture has a list of seasonal vegetables and more at their Island Fresh: Buy Local – It Matters website.

Eat Local, and Eat More Vegetables

As with energy use, eating habits can be changed. Meat production consumes many resources, and one way to manage your own and the global energy diet is to eat vegetarian food more often. In Hawaii we import nearly all of our meat but grow lots of our own vegetables and cereal grains, so every vegetarian meal is, or could be, a local one. Eating at home instead of going for take-out can help, because disposable containers take up huge amounts of space in our landfills and sometimes contain toxic materials. By limiting beef consumption to just a few ounces a day, and eat seafood managed and processed around Hawaii using sustainable practices, then your personal energy use will be greatly reduced.

• Join us in saying NO to Styrofoam in Hawaii’s restaurants – check out our list of Stryofoam-free restaurants!

Drive Smart

There are 760 cars for every 1000 people in Hawaii. With a population of 1,374,810, that’s a lot of cars (968,855 of them, in fact!). While fuel-efficient vehicles greatly lessen carbon emissions, there are ways you can help the environment in a gas-powered car too – keeping the tire pressure in check and removing excess items from the trunk or cargo area can reduce fuel consumption. You can also take public transportation or carpool, both of which conserve energy by having fewer vehicles on our crowded island roads, and less carbon-based fuels burned. And don’t forget biking and walking!

• The US Department of Energy has plenty of gas mileage tips to help you conserve energy.

Use Less Electricity and Less Water

Knowing where your house uses the most energy is the key to finding ways to reduce your usage. These same energy uses are some the easiest to reduce. These reductions have a tremendous effect on energy costs and on the impact you have on the world around you.

Day-to-day activities at home add up in terms of carbon output and energy use. You can manage your energy diet by lowering the thermostat by just a few degrees in the winter and raising it just a drop in the summer, while a programmable one can be an even wiser investment. Managing refrigerator settings in a similar way and using energy-efficient light bulbs can be positive to your energy diet as well. And even if you are taking responsibility for the environmental future by installing a solar electrical system, if you cut the power you consume, then the power generated by your PV array can be fed into the grid, increasing your cash return! As far as water use goes, filtered tap water, shorter showers, and low-flow shower heads can be pluses for conservation.

Reducing your energy use lowers the demands of your home and gives you the peace of mind knowing you’re making a positive impact at home and in your community.

• Check out HECO’s 101 Ways to Save and the rest of their Energy Savings Toolkit for a ton of easy ideas on conserving electricity.
• Check out the Honolulu Board of Water Supply’s Seven Easy Ways to Save Water too!

Recycle!

Transportation and management of waste is a big burden on the environment and requires a lot of energy. Make sure you recycle glass, paper, aluminum, and plastic as well as batteries. The same goes for plastic and paper bags used for shopping and for vegetables. Paper that is used for mail is also a heavy burden – remove yourself from mailing lists of advertisers and ask to receive bills in a paperless format; adding these habits to the environmental energy diet will cut down trees lost, energy used for production and transportation, and overall waste.

• Check out Hawaii Department of Environmental Services at opala.org for a list of what to recycle and how.

These are just a few of the many simple things you can do to manage your energy diet. By reducing your energy needs you help reduce Hawaii’s demand for traditional energy sources. You help bring fewer barrels of oil to the state and account for fewer pounds of carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere

Further Resources

• Hawaii Energy: Your Conservation and Efficiency Program
• The US Department of Energy’s EnergySavers.gov website has an endless amount of tips.
• National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge lists ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

Throughout 2011, Europe continued to expand its solar power generating capacity, with countries like Germany, Spain, and Italy still leading the race. The United States has caught on too, as Hawaii and California among other states explore the economic and environmental aspects of solar power.

The movement towards using solar energy sources has also moved to the Middle East. New solar plants and solar-powered desalination plants have been built or started, amid signs that Saudi Arabia may be looking at energy alternatives. Long the domain where oil was always king, in fact, oil production in Saudi Arabia has declined in recent years; the first signs of this were seen in 2005. The output of light sweet crude oil peaked and has been on the decline; production figures for other types of oil may have peaked as well, based on data from Goldman Sachs.

While analysts continue to disagree on when or whether the peak of oil production has been reached, others make predictions about solar energy usage and export. An international energy consulting company, AT Kearney, predicted that the Middle East could undergo a solar boom in the next decade, with as many as 100,000 jobs created annually and billions of dollars a year invested. With power demand in the Kingdom rising faster than current supply infrastructure can support, Saudi Arabian electricity regulators have set a goal of making solar the source of 10% of the Kingdom’s power by 2020. Although not remarkable by world standards, that the oil-based Saudi government and economy would set such a goal may be a sign that the country’s leaders are finally beginning to look beyond petroleum in setting the country’s economic agenda.

A solar plant on Farasan Island was built by Saudi Electricity and a Japanese energy company owned by Saudi Arabian Oil. The power station is already connected to the power grid as of October 2011, and Saudi Arabia has shown further willingness to work with other countries in its solar power efforts. The Kingdom went into a joint venture with South Korea to build a factory that makes the solar cell material polysilicon. A $1 billion facility will be constructed by KCC Corp., an engineering firm from South Korea, Saudi Mutajadedah Energy Co., and Hyundai Engineering Co. The collaboration even resulted in the formation of joint venture firm, Polysilicon Technology Company.

Another recent development is Japanese firm Showa Shell Sekiyu’s announcement that its subsidiary, Showa Shell Solar, and Saudi Aramco have joined forces to collaborate. The collaboration will be the force behind the construction of a 10 megawatt solar plant in Saudi Arabia. This is just one of a set of corporate alliances that indicate the Kingdom is serious about expanding its solar power interests, both internally and in becoming integrated with world supply and demand.

Goldman Sachs, a major world financial company, predicts that Saudi Arabia will soon experience an oil supply shortage. According to the predictions of some analysts, the manufacturing and business activities taking place could result in the kingdom becoming a world leader in solar. While oil reserves eventually run out, and various predictions have been made over the years about when the world’s oil will diminish, solar energy can never disappear, especially in a vast open desert. Large corporations now admit that the oil reserves and associated wealth in Saudi Arabia are finite. It appears that the Kingdom’s solar energy efforts are well underway. Vast amounts of wealth, and a demand to seek cleaner power, may be fueling the drive to create the largest solar producer and exporter worldwide in just a few short years.

Sources

• A1SaudiArabia.com: Showa Shell Solar Aramco to build solar power plant
• Green Prophet: Saudi Arabia to Replace Oil with Sun Power for Desalination Plants
• Green Prophet: Could Saudi Arabia Become the Saudi Arabia of Solar?
• Theenergycollective: Goldman Sachs: Saudi Arabia Will Fail To Meet Oil Demand By 2012

Wind is a potential major renewable energy source, along with solar energy. Wind turbines feature propeller-type blades that move with the air and power electric generators. Utilities can produce electrical power through many turbines that make up a wind farm. The largest wind turbines are about 300 feet across, and can generate enough electricity for 1,400 homes to be powered, while utility companies sometimes use turbines that are capable of producing anywhere from 50 to 750 kilowatts of electricity. Individual turbines for homes and businesses are generally 8 to 25 feet wide and produce less than 50 kilowatts of electricity.

While engineers can manufacture wind turbines with up to 50% efficiency as of 2011, it is not always windy even in places where high velocity air flow is common. More wind means more power, since the actual energy of moving air is calculated as the cube of the wind speed. That doesn’t mean wind turbines can just spin faster in storm-like conditions; they would blow apart. The machines, therefore, require a limiting mechanism for when the wind speeds reach a certain velocity.

Wind energy is cheaper than solar per watt of energy produced. Another advantage over solar is that it can be produced at night. Cost is an issue though, because the machinery and other equipment involved in wind energy and manufacturing of turbines have increased over the past 10 years. Operating expenses such as fuel use for generators, however, are lower than other technologies for generating power. This still does not account for the fact that wind energy is in an intermittent form, and wind turbines are best placed at sites far from cities with high power demand.

Solar power, most experts agree, is more prevalent as an available resource. It breaks even when intermittency is factored in because the sun doesn’t shine at night, but the cost per watt of solar energy, especially for home installations, is lower than wind. With all things considered, both solar and wind energy are being pursued in many countries. Europe and North America have explored both, while remote places such as South Africa are investing in both forms of renewable energy. Lending institution Standard Bank Group, Ltd. underwrote about $1 billion worth of projects for solar and wind energy, which includes 28 projects across that country, in December 2011.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has also revealed that China is building up its wind and solar power capacity. Over the next 10 years, that country is expected to install enough renewable energy facilities to equal the power output of 180 nuclear reactors. China is the largest energy consumer in the world, according to the IEA, and both wind turbines and photovoltaic modules for solar energy are expected to decline in price, according to the agency’s Chief Economist Fatih Birol.

Wind energy has lots of potential in the world renewable energy market. Can it outdo solar energy in terms of low costs and efficiency? The demand for both is significant and increasing, while fossil fuels are still the predominant energy source. Despite whether one takes the lead over another, experts say that the use of renewable energy can be sort of an escape route from rising energy prices, resulting from an eventual decline in output from traditional sources of energy. Both wind and solar power will likely be critical to the world economy and politics in the years and decades ahead.

Sources:

• Oilprice.com – Solar vs. Wind: Who Wins?
• Bloomberg: Standard Bank to Fund $1 Billion of Wind, Solar Plants in Renewable Plan
• Reuters: China’s green revolution to keep growing
• Wind Energy Development

Solar power makes use of the most renewable energy source there is – the sun. Power generated by solar panels is produced without the risk of atmospheric emissions and, once a solar system is installed, energy costs are markedly lower than standard electricity from the utilities. Understanding the technical details of solar energy and power in general can be quite challenging to newcomers in the field, in particular the jargon, acronyms, and often confusing names that engineers and scientists have created over the years. Many of the units used to express the characteristics of a particular system are expressed as abbreviations. Some of these are straightforward; a photovoltaic system, for example, is often referenced by the letters PV, but the measurements of electricity are a bit more technical than that.

The terms AC and DC power are used in households and throughout industry. An alternating current, or AC, reverses direction at a regular basis and is commonly used by power grids because the voltage can be transformed to higher levels without much loss in energy. The current changes direction at a rate of 100 times per second at a frequency of 50 hertz, which is expressed as Hz. Solar power systems generate power in the form of direct current, or DC. This form is better suited for storage in batteries after it is produced by the solar modules. The size of the electric current is expressed in units called amperes; electricity may flow at currents of 20 or 30 A for example.

Voltage in power lines describes how much electrical pressure there is that enables the flow of electricity. Indicated by the letter V, it is multiplied by the amperes to calculate a measurement of total electrical power called watts, or W. A kilowatt (kW) is a thousand watts, while a megawatt, (mW) is a million. These units of energy often serve as measurements for how much power is used by consumers or which a utility provides. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) defines the use of 1,000 watts over an hour and utilities often use this measurement when billing customers.

The use of gas, oil, and coal to produce energy adds CO2 to the atmosphere. This is carbon dioxide, which is produced in such large quantities by power plants that it is part of the process of global warming. Just how solar energy contributes to climate protection is sometimes expressed as the tons or kilograms of CO2 per kWh of fuel saved. The electrical power of a solar cell, depending on the radiation from the sun, is often expressed as the Maximum Power Point, or MPP. This value usually depends on the temperature of the solar cell and the voltage produced; it is tracked continuously because it changes on regularly with temperature and power output.

Other abbreviations specific to solar systems include BOS, which stands for Balance of System. The BOS accounts for the design costs, installation, operation and maintenance, as well as support structures and batteries that comprise a PV system. A Building-Integrated Photovoltaic, expressed as BIPV, is the combination of materials in a PV installation that make up building elements such as roofs, walls, and windows. In addition, the LCC is the Life-Cycle Cost of a PV system, which includes the costs of owning, operating, and disposing of it. Another abbreviation you may come across is PPA, which is the Power Purchase Agreement between a power producer and consumer. It defines the agreed-to rate at which the consumer purchases a pre-determined amount of power. (We’ve done PPA systems for Hongwanji Mission School and Lighthouse Outreach Church.)

Making sense of common electricity abbreviations, in relation to solar power systems, helps to understand how they work and just how energy savings can be achieved.

If you have any questions about these terms or anything else to do with solar, that’s what we’re here for – contact us today!

Sources:

• SunGreen Systems
• SMA Solar Technology AG

In November we blogged twice about Hawaii’s Public Utility Commission circuit caps making solar a near impossibility for some Maui residents. A 15% ‘distributed generational threshold’ mandated an ‘interconnection study’ for homeowners seeking to go add solar or wind power in areas with a high number of homes or businesses with existing solar or wind power systems. While most of Hawaii remains below the 15% limit, areas of Maui were affected, and the ruling effectively barred new solar permits in the area.

On December 21st, the Hawaii PUC issued an order that will make it much easier for more homes to connect renewable technologies to the grid.

According to Blue Planet Foundation, a key decision of the ‘Rule 14H’ settlement ‘effectively raised the threshold to as much as 50% of the circuit demand and requires that any future supplemental reviews [i.e., interconnection studies] are to be conducted by the utility at no charge to the project and be completed within 20 business days.’

This is great news, ending the worries of those residents in Maui and elsewhere on the islands seeking to go solar.

You can read the other decisions of the PUC 14H settlement here.

From our family to yours, we wish you a delightful holiday season. We hope you’re enjoying time with your family, eating good food, and enjoying the warm Hawaii sunshine!

Below, enjoy some scenes from our Sunetric Holiday Party:

It’s been a great year for solar, here and across the country. We are incredibly excited to announce that we are expanding to the mainland. In late November we opened offices in Denver, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C., and will be opening five more mainland locations in 2012.

At the same time, the success of solar in Hawaii means that we’ll be hiring at least another 100 people locally in the coming year as we grow our businesses. We’ll keep you updated as we continue to grow here in Hawaii and on the mainland. Our commitment to solar and our dedication to top-notch service remains as strong as ever, and we are grateful to our customers here on our islands.

• Learn more about our mainland locations.
• Read more in the Honolulu Star Advertiser
• Read more in the Pacific Business News
• Hawaii News Now: Alex Tiller interview on Howzit Howard

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.