Altus Power executive provides additional details on its Hawaii community solar project

Altus Power is preparing to activate Hawaii’s largest community solar facility to date—pushing the state closer to its goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

The 5 MW ground-mount solar facility, Palailai Solar 1, is being developed in Kapolei on the island of Oahu. A non-profit medical facility will offtake about 60 percent of the clean energy generated from the project and the remaining 40 percent will be portioned to the medical facility's employees and other Oahu residents.

Altus has partnered with the medical facility to offer subscriptions to the project through their Employee Partnership Program. The program was developed as a way to bypass subscription service providers and to gain local trust. Community solar is a relatively new concept and many are skeptical, think it's too good to be true, or a scam, said Daniella Gray, Altus Head of Customer Relations, in an interview with NPM.

“Having employers deliver that message to the employees is a bit more trusted,” Gray said.

In April 2022, they began teaming up with businesses to offer community solar as part of their employee benefits program. They worked directly with HR departments who disseminated the information to their employees. They provide employers with total dollars being saved and the amount of clean energy being generated.

Many people are looking for ways to do something green and this is an easy way to do that and save money while you’re at it, Gray said.

They’ve also eased the application process by developing an onboarding app that can be accessed from a smartphone. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible to sign up,” Gray said.

Altus was awarded the project through Hawaiian Electric’s Community-Based Renewable Energy Program (CBRE) Phase 1. The utility began accepting applications in June 2018 for 8 MW of capacity statewide. Oahu was allotted 5 MW, Hawaii Island and Maui 1 MW and Molokai and Lanai both 0.5 MW. The first two projects in this phase, ROIS CBRE and Mililani Tech Solar 1, went live in 2020. The remaining projects are expected to go live this year.

Phase 2 is now open to 250 MW of renewable projects across the five Hawaiian Islands served by Hawaiian Electric, including Molokai and Lanai. Projects in this phase may include batteries and places special emphasis on opportunities for low-to-moderate income (LMI) residential customers. An RFP was issued in January and selection of a priority list is expected on July 6. Final awards will be announced in October.

“One great reason to be in Hawaii right now is they’ve got the highest cost of power in the country, and we have something to offer that can ease some of that,” said Gray.

Altus will be the long-term owner and operator of the Palailai project.

“I think it’s one of the things that sets us apart as a company,” Gray said. “A lot of others in the space go into it with an investment mentality. We’re in it to own them for the long term,” Gray said. “We think it's nice that we can confidently give the message to the new customer and vendors that there is no intention to sell. I know you may have been passed around previously, but that’s not what’s going to happen here,” Gray said.

Altus is active in 25 states with commercial sized projects and eight states with community solar.

They entered the community solar space in 2015 and currently have operating projects in Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Maryland, and Illinois. In addition to Hawaii’s project that is nearly complete, they have a 30 MW pipeline in New Jersey and recently purchased a project in Maine that they are working to fully subscribe to. They have slightly different arrangements in each state based on what guidelines are set into law, according to Gray.

Altus is eyeing some new states to add to the list including New Mexico.

“We’re always looking out for opportunities both to develop new projects and buy operating projects,” Gray said. If someone is looking to get out of their investment and cash in. “It’s always worth having the conversation,” she said.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.


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