Hawaii consumers who are not able to afford solar panels or many those who may not qualify for conventional financing can claim funds for solar from a $150M funding source at zero upfront costs.
.Back in February 2013, Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ordered an on-bill financing program called Green Energy Market Securitization GEMS to enable electric customers, whether or not they own their properties, to pay for solar installations and other energy saving equipment directly as part of their monthly electric bill. Funds should be available sometime in 2014.
Today, June 3, 2014, Renewable Funding out of Oakland was awarded the contract to develop and manage for the State of Hawaii the $150Million GEMS program.
The funds for GEMS actually comes from the electric consumers themselves involuntarily by all electric rate payers as a 5% hidden fee on the electric bill. Disguised as the "PBF Surcharge" the State of Hawaii collects hundreds of millions per year for its "clean energy initiative."
Though all electric customers pay into this fee only a handful of those who could afford to install solar would claim any return from the fee - as a $7,500 rebate or "free money" from the State of Hawaii. Basically, those who qualified are being supplemented by those who could never qualify, creating an even broader disparity between the haves and have-nots. In a sense, going green and clean energy were being used as a vehicle to benefit the rich on the backs of the poor.
