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Tesla Deploys Over 300 Powerwalls To Give Hawaiian School Kids AC (electrek.co)
Fred Lambert reports via Electrek: As part of a state initiative, Tesla deployed over 300 Powerwalls in schools to cool down hot classrooms in Hawaii. Hawaii has a problem with hot temperatures in public classrooms that is affecting students negatively. The problem was so significant that the Hawaii State Department of Education had to intervene. They put together a $100 million fund, which has already helped cool down 1,190 classrooms to date, with contracts set for more than 1,300 classrooms, according to The Garden Island. In order to roll out the program without significantly increasing energy costs for public schools, they partnered with Tesla to pair Powerwalls with solar power to reduce the impact of running the air conditioners in classrooms across the state. It also resulted in an interesting learning opportunity about renewable energy and energy storage for students.
The local net energy metering situation sucks
Bingo. This is the situation in Hawaii. Power retails for 42 cents/kwhr, about 4 times the highest mainland rate. Solar is currently about 10 cents/kwhr, and federal subsidies push that even lower. So Helco doesn't want to give up 42 cents to get something worth 10 cents. They no longer allow any new net metering installations.
This is, of course, stupid. But from Helco's point of view it makes sense, since they are in the business of maximizing profit from their monopoly market, not serving the public, and the PUC is bought and paid for.
So Hawaiians get one stupid policy ($100M Powerwalls for daytime use) to counteract another stupid policy (no net metering). This is what happens in a one-party state (there are no Republicans in Hawaii).
Hawaii also has zero geothermal energy, despite some of the best volcanic geology in the world, for equally stupid political and bureaucratic reasons.