 Every sunny afternoon it is appropriate for having two solar energy guests today. Think look outside and think how many kilowatt hours are being produced. Just bam, bam, bam. Unfortunately, most of those kilowatt hours are going into storage, which is the type of thing we'll be talking about today. I'm Howard Wigg, Code Green, Think Tech, Hawaii, June 20th, 2022. I guess today are from Revolution. Any local resident probably knows that name very well. They are the largest solar company in Hawaii. And incidentally, we are not either Think Tech Hawaii nor the state of Hawaii is endorsing Revolution. They are here for educational purposes. So thank you very much for appearing. Tom Corey and Scott Wishart to talk about solar energy in Hawaii. And just a little background, I go back quite a ways to the year 1976. Solar energy did exist back then, and it started in the backyard of Kali Judd, of the Judd family. And he and his dad were in the backyard building, who are building solar water heating panel. And they formed their own company, and that was by far the first solar energy company in Hawaii. And back then it was strictly solar water heating. Fortunately, they really pushed and other companies such as Revolution joined and joined and joined, and again, focus on solar water heating, which is very, very fortunate because you heat up that water on a nice sunny day like this. And it goes into a tank. And I call that tank and 80 gallon battery. Why, because we have our peak demand in the evening just when the sun goes down. And when everybody went home and turned on the dishwasher and got into the showers. And that's what they benefited from all that stored up energy that was the original battery technology for Hawaii. Then we evolved into photovoltaic or PV cells. And we, it was so successful is so successful. Thanks partially to revolution that the production of electricity in the middle of the day are exceeded the demand. Different relationships between the solar companies and the utility, and it has finally come out to emphasis on storage. Get all those beautiful kilowatt hours that are going on in the middle of the day, store them up and apply them to the evening hours when the peak demand occurs. Why would peak demand occur in the evening. Number one, everybody's coming home from the their schools and their businesses and the homes are beginning to go great guns. And we belong to a tourist economy. And if you haven't figured it out yet tourism is back loud and clear it's almost at 100% again, guess what those tourists do. They go out to the beach to shopping tours in the middle of the day, and they come back when just when the sun is setting, and they contribute to the peak demand in the evening. Yeah, that is a little bit of background. So, why don't we bring up the first. Oh, and I didn't mention my guest name Tom Corey and Scott wish are of again revolution. And let's bring up the first slide and either of you gentlemen, take it away. One of you take it away please. Yeah, so thank you so much for having Tom and I today Howard really appreciate that. And we talked a little bit about the solar coaster as many people call it in the industry. And you're absolutely right we could never, we can never forget about, you know the hard work that college and many others had done, you know, previous to when the solar industry where when the PV market got a little bit crazy or busy. Let me just show right here on this slide 2009 was our inception. Tom and I have been lucky enough to be a part of the revolution team for almost since the inception but we'll be coming up on our 13th year birthday, this next month. But 2009 was the early adopters that was a lot of people that took advantage of the tax credits for federal and state at that time, and put a PV system up on the roof and net energy metering really kind of coasted us through that time period, all the way up until you know, 2015 when that was when net energy metering, more or less was abolished. That was actually October, I believe it was October 13 of 2015. So that was a date that we kind of that remains in infamy with us in the solar industry. At that point in time, a lot of companies including us we had to kind of redirect what we were doing. And at that time, revolution brought in started doing a lot of smart home things that we did as far as air conditioning and different things that, you know, you could model to make the house a little bit more take a little bit more of a holistic approach to making that house healthier and being able to capitalize on energy efficiency at the house. So, then you fast forward to where we are now from, you know, 2017 to the present and it's just been an amazing time for the PV industry, and batteries has really had a big, a big, a big part in that. And I think what we'll be talking about today is some of the programs right now with with HECO that you're looking at battery bonus, and there's another one through swell called battery rewards. So I don't want to say too much about the solar coaster without handing it over to Tom so he can kind of fill in some of the gaps there. So let me interrupt and say that I recently heard from Hawaiian Electric that I believe there are something like 92,000 PV systems on roofs in little old Hawaii, and Hawaiian Electric is not at all satisfied with that they want another upon rose by the year 2030. And that all has to do with Hawaii's transition towards 100% clean energy. Ideally, we will be burning for building homes and buildings, zero fossil fuel by that time to combat global warming. And you mentioned storage, just offhand, what percentage of the systems that you put up today include storage in them. 100%. 99 to 100%. Yeah, I had, I had read somewhere Howard, some companies had said somewhere maybe around 80% or so. But yeah, I think Tom spot on I would say almost 100% of the installs we do right now are with batteries, but there is there is some instances where that may not be needed on a house, depending on my side, the, I'm with the Hawaii State Energy Office and we're pushing solar farms, and there's no such thing as a new solar farm without a commensurate battery farm. We got to store up those BTUs in the middle of the day and apply them towards night. So why don't we go to the next slide and one of you guys can take over from there. What's all this about guys outages. So, this just kind of lays into what you were saying Howard as far as, you know, battery backup and where the industry is going and a lot of homeowners have, you know, really grasp this I mean, I think we're ahead of the spear here in Hawaii. I mean I really feel like we're about five or 10 years ahead of some other states in the nation and what's happening out here. There's a lot of that has to do with Hawaiian Electric Company. So, you know, with these battery programs, and you had mentioned there's about 50,000, you know, houses out there that have rooftop solar or 90,000 92 to be exact. But he go wants to bring in another 50,000 and batteries are going to be the way that we can do that. And that's for the first time. We're sort of their technology wise where now not only is the home we're going to save money on a monthly basis with having a battery or batteries at the house, but they're also going to have that piece of mind that if the grid does go down, or power does go out, they're going to be able to provide electricity for their family. Yeah. And for those out there listening and watching that don't know, he used to have a program called net energy metering where you really wouldn't need a battery to power your home at night. So, since they stopped doing that. That's why that's the main reason why we're installing batteries now is because, you know, during the day all your power comes from the PV that's powering your home. And at the same time, it's filling up this battery. So as soon as the sun goes down, we're running off battery power. And that just happens every day. The backup element is just kind of secondary. It's great. People love that, you know, your lights will stay on you won't even see a flicker but the main reason again is to power your home at night. These batteries are essential now, you have to have them. And let me do a little more background in September of this month, or this year, which is not many months away, our coal fired plant out in Campbell Industrial Park will officially close and that accounts for, I believe it's up to 20% of all the coal oil whose energy. That's going to be a huge huge huge impact. And what's more, we in the energy code business are shooting for 100% electrification of homes and buildings. So we're doing everything we can to increase electricity going into those structures. Because electric vehicles are coming on like gangbusters, and you so you're going to have all this additional draw on the electrical load to get those nice electric vehicles batteries going. How in the world are you guys going to do all of this. Maybe the next slide will explain it. That's, that's kind of the idea behind Kiko's battery bonus program is instead of building another plant or more plants I believe the coal power plant was producing what 50 megawatts per year so it was a lot of power. So to make up that loss in generation that's what they're doing with this battery bonus program you know we're tapping into folks batteries. And why not there's literally thousands of these on homes around Hawaii so it's kind of a win-win, you know it is a win-win, you know the homeowner gets paid to let he go tap into the battery and then he go doesn't have to build another cold plant which is obviously dirty, you know they're using renewable energy from the sun. Yeah, I think it's a great deal. You know and that and that's why the battery bonus program. That's where we're doing it. What was going on with that slide that we just saw. Oh by the numbers. So what we were just trying to show here Howard was that you can see exponentially, the amount of batteries that are being installed is going up. And just to kind of dovetail a little bit on what Tom was saying with battery bonus. It's an amazing program. It looks like he goes going to be making some changes to that actually almost a year to the date it looks like in June of 2023 or June 20 2023 will be when they may stop taking applications or if it's already hit the 50 megawatts that they want to install in. So there's three tranches there's a first tranche of 15 megawatts second tranche of another 15 megawatts and then a last tranche of 20 megawatts. So the credit the payment will go down over time so it's a great time to get into that. But the beauty of this program really is for the people that were in net energy metering that may be installed they were or were an early adopter back in 2010 2011 all the way up until 2015. And for the last seven years felt like they couldn't add to their PV system. And so now is a beautiful time and this is a really just battery rich program or I should say credit rich program with a federal tax credit right now that's still 26% a state tax credit that kind of irons out to be you know somewhere from 2017 to 27% so we'll call it 22. So you're still getting about 50% back from federal and state tax credits for solar now. So our saying always is best to have done solar yesterday so really not doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of money. But what's so great about this program that Hawaiian Electric put out was that this really opens up the door for people that have always wanted to add maybe they've picked up, as you mentioned an electric vehicle over the years. Maybe the house has gotten a little bit bigger, either they've had some kids or maybe some kids move back in with mom and dad with their family. It's a phenomenal time to basically take advantage of not only putting batteries in and getting a credit, but this also allows you to do a NEM expansion so you get to do a net energy meter expansion so somebody could come in and possibly put up another 10kw worth of photovoltaic 15kw worth of photovoltaic, because maybe that electric bill that they covered early on was only maybe $150 a month, but now maybe that electric bills $500 or $600 a month. That's very real. Yeah, I think a lot of our business now is folks coming back to us that didn't get enough PV the first time around, or they just started using more power since then. And so they need to add to these NEM systems, these legacy systems up until this battery bonus program, you could not add panels to them so that's a big part of this. However, if you don't have a NEM system, and you're installing a new PV system under a different tariff, CGS or CGS plus, you can't participate in the battery bonus program. We recommend maybe, well, depending on your usage, getting an extra battery just to dedicate to this program because you'll need that that first battery to power your home or maybe even two in some cases, power your home at night. The point is, you know, I've never seen a program this good for homeowners I've been doing this for 10 years, other than them. This is kind of like NEM 2.0. You know, and so, yeah, we're encouraging folks to jump on this will still last because like Scott said there's only three tranches. And I might point out that this program is benefiting not only revolution but all the solar dealers out there. I think all of you are probably going absolutely like gangbusters. And then I would also point out as somebody who sees the larger picture that 50 megawatts ain't going to cut it. We need at least I would say, looking down the road at least 150 megawatt so good time to be in the solar business, I would say, you know, what's going on with the next slide here. Well, the one thing I wanted to mention to Howard was, well, well, Max is pulling up the slide. There is also something called battery rewards, which is well, and so swell that that really does cater to people that may have installed, as Tom had mentioned under customer grid supply, or customer grid supply plus, or smart export. So for people that maybe had done an installation in the last maybe five to seven years that are not part of the NEM, that might be a program that that they would look at doing. And that's actually a credit that comes to that homeowner in the form of a monthly payment. And it's derived based upon how many batteries that you have on the house. So that credit could be anywhere between possibly about $40 a month upwards to $150 to $200 a month depending on if they've got one or three batteries on the house, or more. I think that's called passive income. Absolutely. We all need more of that. And by the way swell is it's not exclusive anymore I think there's maybe one other TV company that offers it, but revolution was the first. So it's not available through all contractors, just a handful. Okay, let's go back to that slide. I had a rooftop slide yeah what what's going on with this rooftop here besides being a very beautiful love scenery. I want to say that that's over in Kailua. Well, I think what we were trying to show here, and I pass it over to Tom but just a nice installation on a standing seam roof. And it's just, it's just so we're so proud of seeing the adoption of so much photovoltaic here on the island. I mean we're so firmly we're a lot further ahead per capita than many other states. So it's just really exciting to see everything progress. And I think that these battery programs that Hawaiian electric companies embracing right now have really kind of helped push the trajectory of where the industry is going to go. In the next couple years. Yeah, you know, we read about Hawaii legs here and Hawaii legs there we sure ain't lagging in the solar industry and solar storage capacity. Right, the island of Hawaii usually especially on a sunny day like today, they shut all their power plants down in the middle of the day and it's entirely clean energy run. And that is what all the islands are shooting for. And thanks to every new installation we get a little bit closer to that. So I didn't have. Oh, go ahead Tom. Oh, not to catch you up I was just saying, I didn't know that that's amazing. Also, just to double tail off Scott Scott will say, I think we do need the nation in PV per capita don't we. We're the top. Yeah, need by a factor of two, at least. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And you know what really makes a good solar market is unfortunately the cost of power here is ridiculous. Right, we pay the nation's highest rates. And that's really part of what drives the market and then our state tax incentives are pretty good. You know, everybody, all the states get the federal tax credit, which is 26%, but not all states have a good state tax incentive for getting PV. Some states have like a feed and tear for it somewhere to any program. But yeah, those kind of make the perfect storm for a solar market is price of power being really high in the state tax incentive. You know, 10 years ago, the state and federal tax incentives haven't gotten any better than anything they're going down. So it's good to note if you're a homeowner watching that, you know, the federal tax credit is going down 4% at the end of this year. So right now, as mentioned, it's 26% of the gross cost. You'll get back as a tax credit starting next year it's going to be 22%. So that's the reason why you see so much PV in Hawaii is a large part because of these tax credits, you know, and the price of power, your payoff is really good here compared to the mainland. Sometimes half your ROI will be half the amount of time doing PV here in Hawaii versus on the mainland, maybe in California. You don't even have because our average statewide rate for a kilowatt hour right now is 36 cents. Thanks to the very, very, very high price of oil, the average mainland kilowatt hour cost 12 cents. So there's a factor of three to one. But we're running out of time. What about another beautiful slide please. What's all this about. And just to touch on this this is exactly sort of what you were talking about Howard is what we would call VPP virtual power plants right so that's really what this program is all about is turning individual homes or homeowners homes into a power plant in a sense that is going to help stabilize the grid help out your neighbors just really help what we're doing out here on the island of Oahu. So it's an exciting time to partake in this program, because that's basically what's happening homeowners putting in one maybe two, maybe three batteries, adding more PV to their house. And just to touch on it one last time that might be a family where things have changed at their household over the years, since they did their first install, where more times than not it might just be a new purchase a new family moved somebody that sold their home, maybe that was an older couple that moved to a condo. Maybe it was just because two of them lived at the house. So they only covered an electric bill about $150 a month. New homeowner comes in has two electric vehicles in the driveway. They've got a $400 $500 electric bill. This is a phenomenal time for them to take advantage of coming in adding PV adding a couple batteries, picking up these the federal and state tax that Tom was talking about. But then on top of that, I mean you're talking about an upfront payment from Hawaiian Electric Company of $4,250 per battery, and then another $25 a month for that battery for 10 years. So you're putting in two batteries on your house, you're talking about $14,500 worth of payments from HECO over the course of 10 years with 8,500 of that upfront. So that really, really helps out that bottom line and the return on investment as you had mentioned. It's worth noting also anything that HECO draws from the battery for this program they're going to give you a kilowatt hour per kilowatt hour credit. So if you're a name a NEM system owner, you'll get that credit for the lifetime of the program which is 10 years. If you're a CGS or CGS plus customer, you'll get that for the first three years. So, you know, you're getting the $4,250 upfront, 3,000 amortized over the 10 years and then these kilowatt hour credits. So even if it also it's worth noting, even if it wasn't for the financial incentive, like Scott said, you know, you're contributing to Hawaii going green and reducing your carbon footprint. You're helping out the community so I think it's worth it just for that reason. And how about looking at worldwide is Hawaii serving as an example here for the rest of the states to follow and indeed for the rest of the world to follow. Absolutely. Yeah. I believe so. I know we are virtually ahead of every nation in the world there may be a couple of exceptions. I think there's going to be all eyes on this, you know, on how well this goes as far as the AES coal plant, you know, closing down come September. And then the transition of what you know we're trying to do with what we would call VPP virtual power plants and it's going to be really interesting to see how that shapes up and hopefully it's going to set the bar and set the bar high. We are have set the bar very, very high. Is there any other slide left to show or did we exhaust the slide. You got about one minute. Oh, you can end on this one. I'll pass it to Tom if you wanted to jump on that one time. Yeah, so what are we looking at here. Keep residential PV systems with and without storage right now. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, when I started, you know, 2011, there was virtually no storage. We were just, I mean, it existed and you could buy but it really wasn't worth it. Because it was just for backup purpose. Now, like I said, you need it to power your home at night if you have a new system. So the point is, you know, there's all these systems that we installed and other contractors installed for the last decade that were under the NEM that don't have storage. So I think there's plenty of capacity and plenty of room for folks that already have PV systems to add batteries and again going back to this battery bonus program. This is their incentive. This is their reason to kind of get off the couch and do it. Yeah, all the systems now do come with batteries. I don't know, Scott, do you know what the percentage is out there of PV systems that have batteries and ones that don't. I would probably take a guess that you probably because you had a lot of PV systems early on so I would I would say that only about 5 or 10% of the PV systems or the rooftop solar actually have batteries that was kind of what that slide was showing in the orange was showing people that have PV and then in the blue was the ones with the battery component to it. So we have a lot. That's why Hawaii capacity. Yeah, they put they put this program out to incentivize people in the NEM to basically come in and put batteries on their house. And on that very cheery note we must bid fond of you. Scott Curry, David Wishart, Revolution, you've given us a tremendously optimistic view of the world, Hawaii, little old Hawaii helping mother earth and showing the way for other people who have 100% clean energy. Thank you very much. See you next time. Howard, we think tech Hawaii. Thanks, Howard. Thanks, Howard. Thank you so much for watching think tech Hawaii. 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