 of Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter. I'm an energy attorney, clean energy advocate, and community outreach specialist. I'm also the principal attorney of Imagine Power LLC. Today we're going to take a look at important energy and utility news from Hawaii, around the country, and the rest of the world, as reported in the last week. First let's take a look at some recent developments in clean energy and clean energy policy in the islands. As reported by Dwayne Shimogawa of Pacific Business News, Hawaii's troubled $150 million clean energy loan program doles out just 35 loans. A struggling $150 million clean energy loan program only doled out 35 loans, totaling nearly $2 million as of the end of last year, according to the program's quarterly report released this week. The Green Infrastructure Loan Program, which is also known as the Green Energy Market Securitization, or GEMS program, aims to address financing barriers to increase the installation of renewable energy projects to meet the state's clean energy goals. As of December 31st, however, the program, which started several years ago, has only funded 33 residential solar energy loans and two commercial solar energy loans. It received a total of 269 applications as of that date, with a total of only 35 funded. However, things may be looking up with the new executive director, Gwen Yamamoto-Lau, and renewed interest in the program. The GEMS program, which has suffered from several challenges, including going head-to-head against conventional local lenders, has seen some recent renewed interest, with $109 million in the pipeline to be loaned for projects in such areas as consumer efficiency, commercial efficiency, nonprofit renewable, small business renewable, and community solar. So I think this is an extremely important development. We finally got that the report is now in on what has been the results of what is a huge investment of $150 million for the GEMS program. It's also, I think, something that's very active at the legislature. I think there are a lot of innovative ideas as to what to do with those funds, their ideas about doing energy efficiency projects. There's an idea to use some of the funds for on-bill financing projects. Some would like to see support for community renewable projects. And I think that it's very important that this fund get used in a way in line with its original goals. I also think that it's very important that it focus on the low-to-moderate income market of customers in Hawaii, and it is used in a way that can have enduring energy benefits that also help reduce energy costs for low-income people here. And it's important for a couple of reasons, but I think that the legislature will be motivated to see something happen here because there's been a lot of, a lot of folks have had egg on their face as $150 million was raised and has not been spent. So let's hope that we get some good decisions for the GEMS program, coming out of the PUC, of the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority, and the legislature this year. And if we could go ahead and scroll down to the next story. Also as reported by Joanne Shimogawa, yesterday, regulators award Virginia, or awarding a Virginia firm $700,000 for reaching Hawaii energy efficiency goals. Hawaii regulators have approved a $700,000 performance award to Virginia-based LIDOS engineering for achieving energy efficiency goals set by regulators in 2015, according to public documents. LIDOS engineering runs the state's rate payer-funded energy conservation and energy efficiency program called Hawaii Energy, which serves Oahu, Maui, the Big Island, Lanai, and Molokai. This week, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the program, said Hawaii Energy met and exceeded energy efficiency benchmarks for the program's 2015 fiscal year, which ran from July 1st, 2015 through June 30th, 2016. Hawaii Energy offers cash rebates and other incentives to residents and businesses to help offset the cost of energy-efficient equipment and has helped save residents and businesses nearly $1 billion over the last six years. This is super important for the state, as I've said many times before, and as I think is very well known in the energy community. Energy efficiency is by far the most just, least cost, and really the best way to start in terms of saving energy, and there's a tremendous potential in Hawaii for energy efficiency. It is, I think, congratulations to LIDOS and congratulations to Hawaii Energy for making their goals, saving money, and apparently earning an incentive payment. I hope that more and more folks here embrace energy efficiency measures and programs that will enhance energy efficiency. So congratulations to Hawaii Energy. Moving along, as reported by Frank Hendorka of PV Magazine on February 2nd, two projects have risen from the dead here in Hawaii. These projects were both presumed dead after Sun Edison went belly up here in the islands, but they have been revived by NRG Energy, which bought them for pennies on the dollar. After picking 1.5 gigawatt of solar and wind, flesh off the decaying bones of a bankrupt Sun Edison for pennies on the dollar, NRG Energy is now making two of those grid-scale projects on the Hawaiian island of Oahu pay off. Yesterday, the company signed its first power purchase agreement with Hawaiian Electric for the power from the combined 60.6 megawatt of the Lena Kuhana and the Waipio Solar Plants. These are NRG's first projects in the state. A third Oahu project, the 49 megawatt Kaua Leola Solar Facility, is still awaiting a final PPA, but both sides have said that deal will eventually get done. All three projects are targeted to come online in 2019. The PPAs must still be approved by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. So this is interesting news. I think that the bankruptcy of that prominent solar energy company, really it was a message in a lot of ways. Part of it is what happens when private industry is responsible for or has a role in important power projects, and then private industry is unable to deliver. That's sort of something to think about as we walk forward in terms of business models for our utility here. We have our current HECO, which folks complain about, but for the most part keeps the power on for everybody. We have cooperatives, and then I think we're going to need to have a bigger role for the private market. But what happens when the private market plays and fails? So that's one thing I wanted to comment on. But it sounds good that these projects are going to, or we'll see, but if they're going to go forward, and we will pick up the pieces where that prominent bankruptcy left us off. Moving along, also as reported in Utility Dive, this time Thomas Walton on February 2nd, Hawaii's cooperative utility is shooting for 70% renewables by 2030. Now, Kauai is moving quickly to raise the amount of renewable generation on the island, and its efforts are succeeding. As recently as 2011, more than 90% of the island's power came from fossil fuel sources. But last January, on four occasions, KIUC obtained 90% or more of its electricity from renewables. KIUC's president and CEO, David Bissell, said in a statement that the transition speed is truly remarkable. Other parts of the KIUC plan include continuing to address the strategic implications of climate change, obtaining long-term incidental federal and state permits that set requirements for conservation of endangered bird species, and continuing to invest in clean energy technology. Bissell said, the more aggressive renewables targets come as the Solar City Tesla project is expected online in the next weeks, raising the utility's generation to 44% renewables. The project will include a 52-megawatt-hour energy storage system produced by Tesla and a 13-megawatt solar array developed by Solar City. This is really interesting and exciting, and I think it is part of it as a story of how we can't always predict what's going to happen with technology. We can spend a lot of money, we can plan, but innovation, be it technological innovation or innovation from the workers themselves or a renewed political commitment can really drive renewables forward. And I think we've got an exciting example of this happening in Kauai. And so it also, I think, is really exciting because we've just got the new merger of Tesla and Solar City. Tesla, I think, has been particularly aggressive and excited about its work on islands and driving islands to be 100% renewable. We reported two weeks ago on a North Carolina island that was going 100% renewable with Tesla. Solar City has also been hard at work working in American Samoa. So now we've got the combination of two powerhouses, Tesla and Solar City, battery and rooftop solar and other technologies coming together. I think this could have important implications for islands in Hawaii, important implications for islands in the Pacific, and other islands from around the world. So this is definitely an exciting thing. We'll see what happens in Kauai and very interested to see what moves forward with Tesla Solar City as well. Moving along, as reported by Robert Walton of Utility Dive just this morning, a new study has found that high rooftop solar penetrations can shift costs to non-solar customers. A new study from the Lawrence Berkeley Lab is a mixed bag, giving clean energy advocates plenty of support for expanded solar inefficiency. But a central premise confirms what some utilities have long been seeing, that in areas with significant solar penetration, customers without panels can wind up subsidizing delivery costs. In general, there is so little rooftop solar in the United States that the issue is insignificant in most regions. But for states or utilities with particularly high distributed solar penetration levels, retail electricity price effects may be more significant, but depend critically on the value of solar and underlying rate structures the report found. For states and utilities with exceptionally high distributed solar penetration levels, the effects on retail electricity prices could begin to approach the same scale as other important drivers it reads. That has been the driving rationale behind many net metering battles. Amongst the most high profile, Arizona regulators voted last year to eliminate retail rate net metering and replace it with a reduced compensation mechanism over worries about cross subsidization. Only four utilities, all in Hawaii, have solar penetration rates near 10% of electricity sales. Three other states are projected to reach this mark by 2030, the researchers found. So assuming a value of solar ranging from 50% to 150% of the utility's cost of service, this level of distributed solar would yield between a 5% decrease and a 5% increase in retail electricity prices, under NEM, with purely volumetric rates, the report found. So this is extremely significant that LBNL would make such a finding. First of all, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, nationally and internationally respected researchers on these topics, and no enemy to clean energy. I think what this report basically says is Hawaii. It is true. Net metering tariffs coupled with the rest of the population having volumetric rates shift the cost, shift utilities costs to the non-participating or non-solar customers. This has been a massive issue here and around the country. Are the folks, many who are mostly wealthy, who are putting on rooftop solar and have the means to put on rooftop solar and have the ability to control their property, their home owners, to put on rooftop solar, are the rest of us customers subsidizing those choices through our current rate structures? I think this is something that clean energy advocates have. I think certainly when I was with the Natural Resources Defense Council, we wanted to see the most transparency in terms of what really are the utilities costs, what really is the value of solar. Are we maximizing the power of solar to be more valuable by putting it on the place in the grid where it can add benefit because perhaps there is an increased demand at a certain time? So I think it really is a bombshell for Hawaii to have a study like this that actually is saying, the decision that was made in 2015, I believe, to roll back the traditional net metering program has some support from a study like this. However, I think the other big piece of the picture is the study was done based on volumetric rates or based on the rates that we have now. These are conversations that are alive at the commission here in Hawaii. What should the value of solar and other distributed energy resources be? What should the rate and tariff structures look like? Should it be time of use? How should we structure those rates? So I think the implications of this study are far-reaching for more than one reason, the first, at least being that there may very well be a distribution of money from the wealthy to the poor, from the people who own solar to those who don't. And yet here, again, we have an opportunity to structure our tariffs to hopefully make them as just as they can possibly be. So this is one study. I'm not trying to say it's in any way dispositive, but LBNL is a powerhouse. And that is not insignificant. So thank you. We're going to go to a break. And I'll be back in a minute with more energy and utility news on Power Up Hawaii. So all this hacking has become a major topic. I'm Andrew, the security guy. Join me on Hibachi Talk and learn a little bit more about it. I have my friend Gordo and my puppet buddy Angus. Check us out on Fridays at 1 o'clock on Think Tech Hawaii. OK, we want to tell you about Hawaii, the state of clean energy which plays every Wednesday from 4 to 4.30. Ray Starling and me, we co-host that show. Dean Nishina is here. He's from the Consumer Advocate. We just had a show. We like the show. We had a good time on the show. What do you think, Ray? We're going to have Dean back because there's so much going on at the Consumer Advocate's office. And there's so much yet to be done to get to our 100% renewable energy goals. What do you think, Dean? Did you have a good time? I did have a good time. And I think this is a good opportunity for consumers to learn more because it'll be really helpful in terms of moving forward with our transition to clean energy. From your ellipse to God's ears, thanks, Ray. Thanks, Dean. Watch us 4 o'clock every Wednesday. You'll see. Welcome back to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together for a clean, just, and renewable energy future. We're talking about news and clean and renewable energy in Hawaii, the mainland, and across the world. So now we're going to move on to some national and global clean energy news. So as reported by Robert Dvorak of Wind Power Development on February 3, a new report says that electric vehicle sales climbed 37% in 2016. After some concern over slowing EV sales in 2015, consumers last year appeared to show they are ready to embrace electric transportation options. According to Inside EVs, sales of electric vehicles were up 37% over 2015. And by even a greater amount in the second half, a stark increase after sales declined 5% from 2014 to 2015. They say that the strength was partly driven by a record setting December when sales reached 24,785. Interesting to see that at least according to this particular industry group, electric vehicle sales are healthy and on the rise. This is particularly important here as we look at the backdrop of what's happening at the legislature. We're looking at potentially adopting a 100% renewable transportation goal in Hawaii, one that could be very exciting. But of course, it's very different from a renewable energy goal. Renewable energy goal is something that the state can actually regulate and enforce because the state has regulatory power over the utilities here, or yes, most of the utilities here. This means 100% renewable transportation. That's talking to you and me. That's saying you and I need to move forward and get cars that are not powered by fossil fuel. So that is a very tricky situation. That means that we need to have electric vehicles available. We need to have the related infrastructure be plentiful and available. And until that happens, it's hard to see how we can reach or enforce a 100% renewable transportation goal. I know many people who are struggling to remain in the cars that they have now. So yet it is an extremely positive thing to go for. So it looks like EV sales are on the rise and hopefully we also will be moving towards more EVs and more EV infrastructure and less fossil fuels in our cars. Now, as reported yesterday by Stephanie Speer of EcoWatch, there's been a huge win for renewables in Maryland as lawmakers overrode the governor's veto. Lawmakers in the Maryland Senate voted 32 to 13 Thursday to expand the state's renewable energy target, restoring the Clean Energy Jobs Act, and overriding Republican Governor Larry Hogan's veto of the measure in May of last year. The bill is now in effect. The bill increases requirements to use energy sources like wind and solar power to 25% by 2020, increased from 20% by 2022. The renewable portfolio standard, according to the Maryland Climate Coalition, will result in an additional 250 megawatts of solar energy in the state and more than 1,000 megawatts of additional renewable energy in the region. This is, I think, interesting. One thing is I, and we are researching news stories to figure out what to present for you on this program. I can't tell you enough how as different states throughout the country reach towards 100% renewable energy goals. In each case, Hawaii, with our 100% energy goal, is mentioned, sort of in that context, like this state is going for 50, New York, this state is leading by going for 100 Hawaii. So while what is truly significant, of course, is what happens under the hood in terms of how we get there, how affordably do we get there, how just is our result in terms of clean energy for all citizens. I think it's just important to note that we still lead the way with our 100% renewable energy targets. So moving ahead, as reported by Clean Technia and the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kaviat, the author of the story with my colleague at the Natural Resources Defense Council, U.S. clean energy jobs surpass fossil fuel jobs by five to one. The recently published Department of Energy 2017 U.S. Energy and Employment Report shows that clean electricity jobs are no doubt the engine that drives America's energy economy, outstripping the number of paychecks provided by the fossil fuel industry by at least five to one. While that doesn't mean fossil fuel generation is gone, it certainly means that if you are a politician looking for ways to grow jobs for the long term in your community, clean energy is the path to take. All told, nearly one million Americans are working near or full-time in the energy efficiency, solar, wind, and alternative vehicle sectors. This is almost five times the current employment in the fossil fuel electric industry, which includes coal, gas, and oil workers. And if you add in those who only work part-time, such as a construction worker who doesn't spend all of his or her work hours installing energy efficiency components like high efficiency windows, the number jumps to nearly three million Americans working in part or in whole for the energy efficiency, solar, wind, and alternative vehicle sectors. That's 14 times the current employment in the fossil fuel industry. This is extremely significant. I thank my colleague, Laura Ettenson at NRDC for putting that information and providing context for it as well. I wanna talk a little bit about what these numbers mean and I think it's just another reason why I hope that clean energy, I think many people hope that clean energy does not become a partisan issue. There are tremendous opportunities for jobs and health in the clean energy sector in this country and clean energy should be supported and should be allowed to thrive. Is it also extremely important and significant that folks who may be employed in the fossil fuel industry, in particular those who are structurally, for lack of a better term to say employed in the fossil fuel industry, are empowered to also have means to increase their own careers and jobs and lives is extremely important. I'm someone who's a Pennsylvania native. We fully understand the implications for coal workers, coal miners, and other folks in Pennsylvania, in Virginia, throughout Appalachia. These are folks who have relied on these jobs for a very long time. So I think that it is extremely important for hopefully our politicians to help figure out how economic opportunities can be granted to those who live in regions who have relied on fossil fuel jobs without ignoring the fact that clean energy jobs are really taking off and are becoming even more significant than fossil fuel jobs. So this is, it's a political issue. I also think it's a justice issue and I'll add that it's not clean energy per se that has killed coal or any type of war on coal. What has killed coal has been cheap natural gas prices. So it's important that we understand, I think, that fossil fuels are phasing out for more reason than one. It's bad for the environment and increasingly bad for our economy. So let's just hope that, be it clean or fossil, that we can see the whole picture of how we can move forward best economically for our country and also our climate. And actually I'll juxtapose this with another news story that in New England, having closed a nuclear plant, they've actually seen a spike in greenhouse gas emissions. So whether or not we should have nuclear power, which has, of course, potential risks is another just very important debate and we will continue to talk about that and other important issues of power and energy in Hawaii and globally on PowerUp Hawaii. Thank you so much. I have enjoyed bringing you the news this week. Mahalo and aloha.