1. SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
SENATE COMMITTEE ON WATER, LAND, AND HOUSING
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY, GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, AND
MILITARY AFFAIRS
February 10, 2011, 3:30 P.M.
(Testimony is 4 pages long)
TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION TO SB 1372 WITH PROPOSED AMENDMENTS
Aloha Chair Gabbard, Chair Espero and Members of the Committees:
e Hawai`i Chapter of the Sierra Club, with 8,000 dues-paying members and supporters,
opposes SB 1372 and offers amendments that better ful ll the intent of the historic Solar Roof
Act. SB 1372, in its present form, would delegate the responsibility of certifying solar variance
exception requests to the various counties.
e 2008 Solar Roofs Act was a historic rst that attempted to allow every new homeowner the
bene ts of solar water heating. is Legislature recognized that solar water heaters are one of the
most effective ways to reduce high electricity bills -- slashing the average utility bill by 30 to 40
percent. When these systems are installed during construction, solar water heaters are less
expensive then an electric heater retro t and avoid the need for tax incentives.
Our current law provides for four variances to the “mandatory” solar hot water heater. e rst
two provide for a variance if the installation of a solar heater would be inefficient (i.e., the
location is too shady) or cost prohibitive. e third variance allows for a “substitute renewable
energy technology,” i.e., it allows for future technology to be installed.
e fourth variance, however, is really not a variance. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 196-6.5 simply allows for
the installation of a gas water heater. us, our law currently mandates the use of either a solar or
a gas water heater.
Recognizing that gas water heaters are not as economic or as efficient as solar hot water heaters,
this Legislature expressed a strong intent to avoid the granting of a variance:
It is the intent of the legislature that the variances
provided for in Act 204, Session Laws of Hawaii 2008,
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2. Sierra Club
Testimony Regarding SB 1372
Page 2
(Act 204) will be rarely, if ever, exercised or
granted because the burden of proof will lie with the
applicant to demonstrate that a solar water heater
system, regardless of location or circumstance, is not
cost effective in the context of a thirty-year
mortgage term. This requires the use of realistic
assumptions regarding interest rates, discount rates,
inflation rates, and the expected average cost of
electricity by island over the thirty-year period,
regardless of the cost of electricity, or of oil or
other fossil fuels, at a specific time.
Act (emphasis added).
Unfortunately, this strong expression of intent has not been followed. As reported in the Civil
Beat (Michael Levine 11/11/2010) and later in the Honolulu StarAdvertiser, a signi cant
number of developers have utilized the “gaping loophole” in the Solar Roof Act. Within the rst
year of this Solar Roof Act, twenty ve percent of homes failed to install solar. Nearly half of the
new homes on the Big Island -- 303 of 660 -- installed gas-powered heaters instead of solar. One
developer reported that variances were “granted as a matter of course, as I understand it.”1
Jan Feb March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Total
Variance Requests
Honolulu 3 2 4 2 1 0 3 0 0 3 11 22 51
Kauai 7 4 10 10 38 3 1 3 2 4 7 4 93
Maui 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 3 8
Hawaii 9 21 25 32 16 22 28 24 40 24 23 39 303
Unknown 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2
Total 19 28 39 44 55 25 32 28 44 31 44 68 457
Single-Family Building Permits
Honolulu 33 54 50 106 108 52 51 53 111 91 48 58 815
Kauai 16 8 14 11 46 11 9 25 7 8 15 14 184
Maui 19 18 15 27 13 22 19 24 14 14 12 18 215
Hawaii 50 67 46 57 40 71 64 43 67 49 57 49 660
Total 118 147 125 201 207 156 143 145 199 162 132 139 1874
Ratio of Variances to Permits Issued
Honolulu 9.1% 3.7% 8.0% 1.9% 0.9% 0.0% 5.9% 0.0% 0.0% 3.3% 22.9% 37.9% 6.3%
Kauai 43.8% 50.0% 71.4% 90.9% 82.6% 27.3% 11.1% 12.0% 28.6% 50.0% 46.7% 28.6% 50.5%
Maui 0.0% 5.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 4.2% 14.3% 0.0% 8.3% 16.7% 3.7%
Hawaii 18.0% 31.3% 54.3% 56.1% 40.0% 31.0% 43.8% 55.8% 59.7% 49.0% 40.4% 79.6% 45.9%
Total 16.1% 19.0% 31.2% 21.9% 26.6% 16.0% 22.4% 19.3% 22.1% 19.1% 33.3% 48.9% 24.4%
1Civil Beat, “State Allows Developers to Flout Solar Mandate,” available at http://www.civilbeat.com/
articles/2010/11/12/6389-dbedt-developers-burn-gas-flout-solar-mandate/
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3. Sierra Club
Testimony Regarding SB 1372
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It would quite simple to stop this abuse of the Solar Roof Act.
We could amend SB 1372 to ful ll the intent of this Legislature by giving the coordinator the
discretion and responsibility to review variance applications. is allows the coordinator to grant
the variance in legitimate situations -- like a infrequently-used vacation rental house -- and deny
developers that are simply trying to out the intent of the law, namely to ensure Hawai‘i
residents obtain the cleanest and cheapest form of energy.
Proposed Amendments:
§196-6.5 Solar water heater system required for new
single-family residential construction. (a) On or
after January 1, 2010, no building permit shall be
issued for a new single-family dwelling that does not
include a solar water heater system that meets the
standards established pursuant to section 269-44,
unless[, at the coordinator’s discretion,] the
coordinator approves a variance[ is approved]. A
variance application shall only be accepted if
submitted by an architect or mechanical engineer
licensed under chapter 464, who attests that:
(1) Installation is impracticable due to poor
solar resource;
(2) Installation is cost-prohibitive based upon
a life cycle cost-benefit analysis that incorporates
the average residential utility bill and the cost of
the new solar water heater system with a life cycle
that does not exceed fifteen years;
(3) A renewable energy technology system, as
defined in section 235-12.5, is substituted for use as
the primary energy source for heating water; or
(4) A demand water heater device approved by
[Underwriters Laboratories, Inc., is] a North American
certification entity will be installed that would
better address the state’s renewable energy goals
expressed in section 269-92 because of unique aspects
of the proposed single-family dwelling; provided that
at least one other gas appliance, not including
decorative lighting or outdoor grilling equipment,
[is] will be installed in the dwelling. For the
purposes of this paragraph, "demand water heater"
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4. Sierra Club
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means a gas-tankless instantaneous water heater that
provides hot water only as it is needed.
(b) A request for a variance shall be submitted
to the coordinator on an application prescribed by the
coordinator and shall include the name of the dwelling
owner, a description of the location of the property,
and justification for the approval of a variance using
the criteria established in subsection (a). A
variance shall be deemed approved if not denied within
thirty working days after receipt of the variance
application. The coordinator shall publicize:
(1) All applications for a variance within seven
days after receipt of the variance application; and
(2) The disposition of all applications for a
variance within seven days of the determination of the
variance application.
(c) The director of business, economic
development, and tourism may adopt rules pursuant to
chapter 91 to impose and collect fees to cover the
costs of administering variances under this section.
The fees, if any, shall be deposited into the energy
security special fund established under section
201-12.8.
(d) Nothing in this section shall preclude any
county from establishing procedures and standards
required to implement this section.
(e) Nothing in this section shall preclude
participation in any utility demand-side management
program or public benefits fee program under part VII
of chapter 269.
e solar mandate was a critical step in securing Hawaii’s energy future, reducing our
contribution to global climate change, and improving the affordability of housing in Hawai‘i.
Respectfully, we ask this Committee to reject 25% or 50% success, and instead ensure a solar
water heater on each and every home in Hawai`i.
Mahalo for the opportunity to provide testimony.
Recycled Content Robert D. Harris, Director