Companies are ditching solar installations for townhouses

Many Oahu solar companies have stopped accepting townhouse customers due to the long wait for building permit approval from the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permits.

“The problem is … just maddening to the people of the state who are trying to help ease the pressure of the electrical problem with the coal plant shutting down by storing it,” said Sloane Struse, who wanted to install solar panels on his Ko Olina Townhouse but could not find a solar company that would take him on as a client.

“We can’t even help because we can’t even get the permits because they’re so late.”

The AES Hawaii coal-fired power plant in western Oahu is set to close by September, making it even more urgent for the state to implement green energy systems, such as more solar power.

Colin Yost, chief operating officer of RevoluSun, said the solar company had tried to accept townhouses for as long as it could, but recently had to stop accepting townhouse customers because the waits for permits made it too difficult to install the product.

“We stopped doing these projects, due to the uncertainty of when we would actually be able to install the systems,” he said.

“When you have a small project, it becomes even more difficult because it’s just not worth it for a lot of people to go through a process of waiting for a year to get that job done.”

One of the particular problems with solar energy that makes long waits difficult is that people want to claim tax credits for the year the system is installed. Currently, if a person installs a solar photovoltaic system, they can claim a 26% credit on their federal taxes. That number will drop to 22% in 2023 and is set to completely expire in 2024 unless Congress renews it.

Ben Parish, owner of Eco Solar, said the company hasn’t been installing systems in townhouses since 2016 because the added cost of long waits for permits made installing in townhouses too much. costly for owners.

One of the problems is that townhouses are not treated as single family homes under the permit system. This means that when plans are submitted through the online portal on the DPP website, they are not automatically issued and must be reviewed by staff. Also, as all townhouse electric meters are wired, electrical engineering must also be included in the permit application.

“Residential customers can’t quite stomach the added $10,000 for engineering,” Parish said.

In 2020, the city passed an ordinance that was supposed to make it easier to install solar industry in townhouses. The order creates a 14-day deadline for the DPP to approve or deny solar permits, and if that deadline is not met by the department, solar companies can begin building and their permit is considered accepted, provided that the business certifies itself that the application is correct and is willing to accept any fees for the permit.

Hawaii Solar Energy Association executive director Rocky Mold said while the ordinance is on the books, it has not been implemented.

However, DPP Director Dean Uchida said it is the solar companies that are not benefiting from the order.

“The industry hasn’t benefited from that,” he said.

“They’re pushing for a law, they made the change and they’re not using it now. So I don’t know what the problem is.

Another additional issue concerns the rules that homeowners associations can impose on solar installations, which can vary from place to place and sometimes be extensive.

In 2022, only 12 permit applications were submitted for solar projects on multi-family dwellings, the townhouse category. Four have been approved, five are under review and three are in initial processing.

However, townhouses aren’t the only problem solar companies identify with long waits for permits.

Residential homes that are built on the same parcel are flagged and sent to the DPP’s E-Plans Division in addition to being reviewed by DPP staff, which affects homes in new developments such as Koa Ridge and Hoopili.

Parish said he failed to get permits approved in the areas he submitted in January, which also means the prices he quoted owners for installation have gone up due to the increased cost of goods.

“Year-to-date so far, everything is up 10%. … It’s actually more on some things, like some of our electrical parts,” he said.

“The solar panels that we quoted them in January, they are no longer available. Now it is a newer model which is more expensive. … This drives up costs for the customer.

Uchida said he was not contacted by anyone at Koa Ridge about the issue, and said he doesn’t think Hoopili should have these issues. Instead, he suspects developments on Hoopili may be so new that the online portal fails to recognize addresses and flag projects.

Currently, the permit system does not have the ability to prioritize some residential projects over others, so solar permits are mixed in with all other applications for other residential construction issues.

“If you go through the regular permit process, it takes a while because we process over 20,000 permits a year. … The system is configured so that there is an entrance, an exit; we cannot remove permits and processes. The system is not built like that. So what happens is you get stuck in the queue and then you just have to wait your turn,” he said.

“We get so many permits and we are understaffed in our permitting branch. We still have about 30% vacancies right now.

Uchida said it can take months to get the permit into the system, but the DPP is trying to find better software that would streamline the permitting process and hire more staff. He said the department had been authorized to hire around 80 new staff over the next two years, 40 of whom would be building permit plan reviewers.

The state’s decision to shut down the coal plant, a decision in which the DPP was not included, further compounded the problems. Uchida explained that due to the shutdown, DPP staff had to work on permit approvals for large solar projects.

“We had to pull people out and assign them specifically to help with solar projects,” he said.

“(It) takes away all the other permits that we tend to deal with. So it’s a bit unfair that we have to deal with just one industry and let everyone suffer.