The executive director of a failed $150 million state loan program for renewable energy resigned from her post after less than a year on the job.
Tara Young, executive director of the Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority, resigned Thursday.
Young said she planned to leave HGIA — the office responsible for overseeing a loan program intended to help low- income residents own rooftop solar energy systems — in a letter to stakeholders on Wednesday.
“A little less than a year ago, I joined as executive director with a clear goal — to develop a strategic plan to responsibly deploy the GEMS (Green Energy Market Securitization Opens in a new tab) fund and to build an organization at HGIA with the capabilities to execute this challenging task,” Young said.
She did not provide a reason for her resignation in the letter and did not a return a phone call Monday seeking comment.
GEMS has faced recent scrutiny for lending out only a tiny fraction of its funds.
State lawmakers approved GEMS in 2013 and raised $150 million in a November 2014 bond sale. The program had a goal of lending all the money for solar and other renewable energy systems by November 2016. After a year of offering loans for rooftop solar systems, only 12 have been installed with loans totaling just $385,000.
Interest on the bonds and all expenses related to issuing and managing the bonds are paid by Hawaii electric ratepayers in an item on their monthly bills called the “Green Infrastructure Fee.” Ratepayers paid about $21.5 million as of June 30 for Opens in a new tabthe GEMS program. From July to the end of 2016, ratepayers will pay an additional $6.4 million.
Improvements touted
The 2-year-old GEMS program has had three executive directors and is now looking for its fourth. State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism Director Luis Salaveria said the search for a new executive director will begin soon.
During Young’s time as executive director, the program funded its first consumer solar loans. In her resignation letter, Young said the program made improvements to the application processes and moved forward with programs that would expand the technology accepted to receive GEMS funding, including residential energy storage and community solar.
“In response to the entirely appropriate public interest in the performance of this program, we have sought to be transparent and frank about the challenges and opportunities,” Young said. “HGIA and our board of directors continue to believe that GEMS funds will play a transformative role in improving access to renewable energy technology and advancing the state’s green energy goals.”
In August the state Public Utilities Commission suspended Young’s request to use the loan program to finance energy storage systems, or batteries, for residential use. The consumer advocate at the time, Jeff Ono, warned that doing so could result in a repeat of the mistake GEMS made with its plan to lend money for rooftop solar systems. Between the time the GEMS program was envisioned and the loans were made available, the private sector had stepped in with several similar loan programs for solar systems. Those alternatives rendered the GEMS program virtually useless.
Failure to properly assess the market was one of the causes of the failure of the GEMS program. The PUC said it agreed with Ono’s concerns and “is equally troubled” by HGIA’s lack of quantitative analysis and market assessment in its plan to fund storage systems.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee said the solar loan program will be a topic for the upcoming legislative session.
Rep. Chris Lee (D, Kailua-Waimanalo) said he plans to introduce legislation to unwind the funds of GEMS.
“Clearly the program has not met the expectations the Legislature set out to benefit local residents,” Lee said. “If the program is going to continue, we have an obligation to taxpayers to ensure that this money is used for the original purpose.”
Lee said he did not have the specifics of the bill he plans to introduce but would consider all technologies available.
Many ratepayers have said they would prefer the GEMS program be ended and the $150 million, or what is left of it, be paid back in the form of lower electric bills.
When asked if he would consider introducing a bill that would give the money back to ratepayers, Lee said, “If the program can’t work and it is not going to benefit residents first and foremost, then the money should be returned.”
