Could the dark clouds finally be parting?

For the second month in a row, the number of solar-energy permits on Oahu has increased, an encouraging uptick after two years of steady decline. The city issued 194 permits for photovoltaic (PV) systems in February, up 26 percent from February 2017. In January, solar permits were at 229, a 18 percent rise over the same year-earlier period.

What’s significant about this trend — aside from the upward movement — is that more than half of the permitted systems include battery energy storage. Of February’s 194 total permits, 60 percent included battery storage; in January, 53 percent of the 229 permits included storage.

“Nowhere else in the country is residential energy storage (battery systems) being deployed as part of new PV system installations as vigorously as we’re seeing here,” noted Marco Mangelsdorf, who tracks rooftop solar permits statewide and owns a PV company. “On the macro level, the storage arena has become one of the hottest energy playing fields in the world.”

Oahu PV permits hit a peak of 16,715 in 2012, but by last year, had plummeted 82 percent. The decline was largely due to the state in 2015 ending the popular net energy metering (NEM) program, which credited participants the full retail rate for excess solar energy sent into the electric grid.

Increasingly, today’s systems enable PV panels to charge connected batteries during sunny hours, for energy to be used at night or during cloudy periods. With the summer months coming, it seems probable that more consumers will be investing in this technology for “greener” energy, which makes a lot of sense in Hawaii. And, it especially makes dollars and sense while robust federal and state PV tax credits are still available. After some gloomy years, the sector’s sunny outlook is certainly welcome.

Time for refresher on snorkeling

In this land of fun, sun and surf, it’s quite easy to let the realities of ocean risks and hazards fade to the background — much like the outside world fading away when immersed in waters while snorkeling. Still, being forewarned is being forearmed — and given Hawaii’s alarming spike in snorkeling deaths already this year, any need-to-know awareness could mean the difference between life or death.

A snorkeling safety workshop held this week in Waikiki was a good start to gathering information and discussing the prevention of snorkeling-related drownings in Hawaii.

The state Health Department’s snorkel safety subcommittee has been meeting for about a year, but more specific data from tourist surveys and a new resident one now underway, will help determine risk factors of snorkeling, as well as prevention strategies. The various risk factors that might be examined include one’s snorkeling experience, travel history and flight details, medical condition and equipment selection.

Much attention has already focused on the increasingly popular full-face snorkel masks, which have been involved in four of Hawaii’s 10 snorkeling-related deaths this year; an average year sees 17 snorkeling fatalities. Any new information to craft updated tips on prevention, equipment or safety would be helpful indeed.

Medical aid in dying imminent

After decades of impassioned debate, Hawaii is poised to become only the sixth state to legalize medical aid in dying. The state Senate passed, unamended, House Bill 2739 on Thursday, and Gov. David Ige has said he would sign it. It now behooves policymakers and the public, as well as Hawaii’s medical community, to make sure that this new law works as advertised.

Proponents have said there are plenty of safeguards to ensure that a person seeking lethal drugs to end his or her life does so willingly, with a clear mind, after thoughtful reflection and thorough documentation.

Of course, applying laws to real-life situations isn’t always cut-and-dried. And few areas are as fraught with uncertainty as medical treatment, especially when it comes to a suffering loved one, already physically and mentally compromised, approaching the boundary between life and impending death.

The Our Care, Our Choice Act also implicates a profession traditionally dedicated to healing, or at least to do no harm. The depth of suffering by a soon-to-die patient might well move some doctors to accede to the patient’s final request to die. But other doctors who oppose medical aid in dying may find themselves in conflict with their patient. Their right to refuse to prescribe lethal medication, or to otherwise assist their patient to receive it, should be protected.

And health insurers need to ensure that patients who don’t want to end their lives with a lethal prescription have at least the same access to medical services, be it palliative care or life-saving treatments, that they had before the law was passed. After all, they should have a choice, too.