Hawaii Governor signs PV renter bill

Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie signed four bills related to energy at a ceremony on July 3. One of those measures was Senate Bill 19, Relating to Renewable Energy. SB 19 was enacted as Act 261, and is being called the “PV Renter” bill. The new law exempts landlords and lessors who install renewable energy systems on their property and provide, sell, or transmit electricity generated from those renewable energy systems to tenants or lessees on the premises from the definition of public utility, under certain conditions.

Among others, those conditions include:

• An interconnection is maintained with the utility to preserve the lessees’ or tenants’ ability to be served by an electric utility;
• The landlord does not use the utility’s transmission or distribution lines;
• The rate charged to the lessee or tenant for the power generated by the renewable energy system does not exceed their normal kilowatt-hour charge from the applicable utility; and
• The rate schedule or formula should be established for the duration of the lease, and the lease agreement entered into by the lessee or tenant must reflect the rate.

Source: Big Island News

Laurel Passera

Laurel is a Senior Renewables Analyst for IREC attorneys Keyes, Fox & Wiedman, and engages in research and analysis of net metering and interconnection regulatory trends to support IREC’s outreach and communication efforts. In 2009, Laurel was a Southeast Regional Network fellow for the Southeast Environmental Leadership Program and currently sits on Raleigh City Council’s Environmental Advisory Board.