Hawaii’s 74 megawatts of solar installed in the third quarter was the sixth most in the U.S. and moved the islands up three spots to become the 15th-largest solar state in the U.S.
The amount of solar installed was up from just 17 MW in the year-earlier period, according to third-quarter data in the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report, which was released Wednesday by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the Solar Energy Industries Association. Last quarter’s total was topped only by California, Florida, North Carolina, New York and Minnesota.
Hawaii’s solar market has surged 15 percent in the past year with 920 megawatts installed statewide, the report said. The state’s 2,700 solar jobs is also the fifth-best per capita, according to the report.
Nationwide, solar tariffs took a toll on utility-scale solar installations in the third quarter, according to the report. For the first time since 2015, quarterly additions of utility-scale solar photovoltaics fell below 1 gigawatt, highlighting the impact of the tariffs and the uncertainty surrounding them in late 2017 and early 2018. As a result, the U.S. solar market was down 15 percent in the third quarter of the year, but the report noted that a strong project pipeline lies ahead.
Meanwhile, the residential market continued to stabilize after a down 2017. Overall, analysts expect 2018 growth to be flat.
“If not for the tariffs, the U.S. solar market would undoubtedly look better today than it does now,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “However, as this report shows, this is a resilient industry that cannot be kept down for long. With smart policies in place, the potential for the solar industry is hard to overstate.”
Total installed U.S. PV capacity is expected to more than double over the next five years, the report said.
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ON THE MOVE
Bank of Hawaii has announced the following new vice presidents:
>> Iwalani Sabarre- Kapika was promoted to vice president and loan processing manager from assistant vice president in the Loan Operations Department. Sabarre-Kapika first joined the bank as a summer intern in 1985 and has held various high level positions in the loan operations since 1998.
>> Traci Takatani was promoted to vice president and FIS relationship program manager from officer at the FIS Cost Allocation Department. Takatani joined the bank as a peak-time teller at Kalihi Branch in 1996. Since then she has held various high level positions, including as a sourcing officer in the Corporate Sourcing Department.
>> Ross Yonamine has been promoted to vice president from assistant vice president. Prior to joining Bank of Hawaii in 2016, Yonamine served as a senior information technology risk consultant for Ernst & Young.
