Support SB 1289: Solar-Ready New Homes

The Senate Committee’s on Housing and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism is hearing SB 1289- Relating to Rooftop Solar Installation on Wednesday, February 13th at 3:15 PM.

This bill, also known as the Solar Ready Homes bill, is one of the most progressive and important pieces of legislation being heard at the legislature this year. The bill would require a solar energy generation system be installed on every new single-family home constructed after January 1, 2022. As you may know, last year California adopted a similar piece of policy that would require all new homes to have a solar energy system installed after 2020. They estimated that the cost of a new solar system actually saved a home-buyer money over a 30-year mortgage, saving the homeowner almost $20,000 over that same time period.

Submit testimony IN SUPPORT for SB 1259 by logging into your capitol.hawaii.gov account and clicking “submit testimony”. Sample testimony below:

Aloha Chair Chang, Chair Wakai, and Members of the Committees,

I STRONGLY SUPPORT SB 1289. This measure requires a rooftop solar energy generation system to be installed on all new single-family residential dwellings that are not granted a variance beginning on 1/1/2022.

Solar energy technology, such as solar photovoltaic and solar hot water, are proven to help people save money on their energy bill, reduce electrical demand and the use of fossil fuels, and combat climate change. With some of the highest amount of solar energy installations per capita, bills like SB1289 are well in line with Hawaii’s renewable energy goals and should be passed immediately. 

Hawaii still gets over 80% of its energy from dirty fossil fuels, and consumers are paying the price through high energy bills and carbon emissions. In the last 20 years, the price of solar energy has dropped to all time lows and it gets more affordable every single day. Rolling the cost of a solar system into the price of a new home makes it even more affordable. Similar policy enacted last year in California found that a homeowner would actually save almost $20,000 in energy and maintenance costs over the life of a 30 year mortgage.

Thank you for supporting clean solar energy and for the opportunity to testify in support of SB 1289.