{"id":132167,"date":"2020-12-09T13:18:02","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T23:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=132167"},"modified":"2020-12-09T13:18:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T23:18:02","slug":"uh-green-tariff-net-zero-energy-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/09\/uh-green-tariff-net-zero-energy-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> pursues &lsquo;green tariff&rsquo; to help achieve net-zero energy goal"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-shidler-pace-solar-innovation.jpg\" alt=\"solar panels under clouds and sun\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-131045\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-shidler-pace-solar-innovation.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-shidler-pace-solar-innovation-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/manoa-shidler-pace-solar-innovation-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and Hawaiian Electric have agreed to collaborate on a &ldquo;green tariff,&rdquo; an innovative renewable energy initiative, to help the university achieve its goal of net-zero energy by 2035 and bring online more cost-effective, renewable energy resources to benefit the entire state. A request for review and approval of the &ldquo;green tariff&rdquo; was submitted to the Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday, December 9, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative aims to develop a project to lower energy costs for the university and increase overall renewable energy generation for the state. Moving to cost-effective renewable electricity is a core priority for <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>, according to <abbr>UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our goals are to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, lower our utility bills and fulfill our leadership responsibility and commitment to the future for our students, the university and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>,&rdquo; said Lassner. &ldquo;<abbr>UH<\/abbr> is grateful to Hawaiian Electric for its collaboration to find a solution that can work for both organizations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Key elements of the proposed program include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The university will provide a project location at no cost for a renewable energy facility. A university-utility working group is evaluating sites for possible renewable development.<\/li>\n<li>Hawaiian Electric will seek independent developers who will compete to offer the best proposals to build a renewable facility, including energy storage, on that land to provide power to the <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> utility grid.<\/li>\n<li>The university will benefit from the lower costs provided by renewably generated and stored electricity produced by the facility, which can be used to support the <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> utility grid, as needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <abbr>HECO<\/abbr> &ldquo;green tariff&rdquo; partnership is just one of <abbr>UH<\/abbr>\u2019s continuing efforts across the 10-campus system to promote energy efficiency that includes use of rooftop solar, demand-response grid services and other measures. Earlier this year, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leeward.hawaii.edu\/\">Leeward Community College<\/a> became one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/07\/19\/leeward-first-uh-net-zero-campus\/\">first virtually net-zero campuses<\/a> in the country, generating 97% of its energy through on-site <abbr>PV<\/abbr> systems and storage. Windward <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> announced in September that it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/09\/24\/windward-cc-sustainable-pv-energy\/\">generating 70% of its energy through <abbr>PV<\/abbr> and storage<\/a>. <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Maui College, Honolulu <abbr>CC<\/abbr>, <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> and Windward <abbr>CC<\/abbr> will soon be reducing their fossil fuel consumption by up to to 98%.<\/p>\n<p>Lassner said <abbr>UH<\/abbr> is committed to lowering operating costs, particularly in these difficult times with the COVID-19 pandemic as state support for public higher education is shrinking and family budgets are highly challenged.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;With some of the highest electricity rates in the country, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> now pays its electricity bills primarily with tuition paid by students and their families,&rdquo; said Lassner. &ldquo;At <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, electricity costs represent an average of over $1,500\/year for every student enrolled. <abbr>UH<\/abbr> is working actively to contain and hopefully drive that cost down through a variety of measures including energy conservation, demand reshaping, public-private partnerships, and now this innovative new tariff.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> became the first state in the country to make an unprecedented commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045. Concurrently, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> and the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Legislature established a collective goal for the university system to be &ldquo;net-zero&rdquo; by January 1, 2035, meaning the system would produce as much renewable energy as it consumes across its 10 campuses.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaiianelectric.com\/university-of-hawaii-and-hawaiian-electric-agree-on-green-tariff-to-benefit-campuses-and-community\">Read more from <abbr>HECO<\/abbr><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The innovative renewable energy initiative aims to help the university achieve its goal of net-zero energy by 2035 and bring more cost-effective, renewable energy resources the entire state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1359,63,65,672,60,947,66],"class_list":["post-132167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-energy","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-renewable-energy","tag-maui-college","tag-uh-system","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132167"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132179,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132167\/revisions\/132179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}