Solar power in Hawaii

Hawaii's grid has had to deal with this unique situation by developing new technology for balancing the energy flows in areas with large amounts of solar power.

"Overbuilding" distributed solar in some areas has led to issues such as partial duck curve, although time-of-use pricing has reduced disadvantages.

[13] HECO has made connecting to the grid more difficult, leading to layoffs among the solar installation industry.

[15] A proposed grid interconnection between Oahu and Maui would have allowed more renewable energy but was rejected as too costly.

Approved inverters must allow the company to remotely turn off power transmission to the grid as needed.

[17] The utility has gone full steam ahead with its own plans to build utility-scale solar, approving 110 MW on July 27, 2017.

[18] Cyanotech has a 0.5 MW solar array on its algae farm at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii.

[23] Diesel usage was expected to be reduced by 10 million U.S. gallons (38 thousand cubic meters) in 2016 compared to 2008.

In 2012 a typical solar system in Hawaii paid for itself in only 4 years, and returned a profit of over 4 times the cost over its life.