Products

Better Solar Enery Savings Estimates Using Hawaiian SunZones

By

| Reading time 1 minute

Solar is an attractive proposition in Hawaii, with great solar irradiance and high utility rates. 1 out of 4 homes in Hawaii has gone solar.  A home in Honolulu that uses 1,000 kWh/month and installs a 5 kW system can eliminate over $2,400 in utility spending in the first year at an avoided cost of 33.6¢/kWh.  It’s no wonder that Hawaii has installed the second most residential solar in 2013 according to GreenTech Media.

As those of you who have vacationed on the aloha isle can attest, the microclimates vary tremendously.  You could be on the beach one minute and hiking up a mountain later in the afternoon.  For example, the Honolulu airport gets twice as much sunlight as Ahupua National Park and they’re about 25 miles apart.

To help develop more renewables the Hawaii State Energy Office put together a renewable EnerGIS map that provides the micro-climate data necessary for more accurate solar estimates. Utilizing available data in public GIS files, known as “layers”, the HSEO makes this data publicly available.

solarmap-oahu

Genability now allows you to use these Hawaiian SunZones to correct for Hawaiian micro-climates when estimating solar production through PVWatts.  Using the SunZone to adjust the solar production results in  a 5 kW system in Ewa (SunZone 501-550), producing 28.5% more than the same system in Kaneohe (SunZone 351-400).  Simply select your SunZone along with the other solar system parameters when generating solar production for your account.

Web screenshot

The example above is for Oahu, but the State Energy Office has mapped all the islands similarly.  The great news for solar developers is that utility costs are even higher on the other Hawaiian islands.   So when you create projects in Hawaii, don’t forget to incorporate the SunZone.  You’ll get more accurate estimates for your quotes and your operations and maintenance team will thank you after install.

Also in Products

Genability Releases Solar Savings Tools For PV Developers And Installers

By Eric Danziger | Jun 8, 2013

We are proud to release our Solar Savings product, Genability Switch into the universe. Genability Switch helps residential and commercial solar providers deliver precise Solar Avoided Cost Calculations to their customers.  This includes tools to analyze leads,...

Typical Electricity Usage Profiles for When You Do not Have Customer Usage Data

By Eric Danziger | Jun 7, 2013

We’ve released a new set of typical electricity usage profile data called Typicals.  If you’re working with customers to calculate energy savings and you “typically” ask for their usage data, Genability Typicals will be of some use...

Genablity Extends Electricity Rate Coverage to The Long Tail

By John Tucker | Apr 2, 2013

When we first started collecting electricity rates we went after the utilities and states with the most customers (California, New York, Florida, etc.).  To date, Genability has collected electricity rates that represent 88% of Residential customers and...

Value of Solar in the U.S. Virgin Islands

By San Prabhu | Mar 15, 2013

The U.S. Virgin Islands is a great place to vacation. What’s not so great are the island’s electricity rates.