The policy change spurred a huge rush in the residential solar market<\/a>, and many solar companies are fully booked until the end of the year.<\/p>\n David Gorman leads the residential division of RevoluSun, which installs rooftop solar on O\u02bbahu. He said his company made six months\u2019 worth of sales in July alone.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we just had to kind of call it, because we were worried about taking on and committing to more than we were actually going to be able to do,\u201d Gorman said.<\/p>\n Rising Sun Solar operates across Kaua\u02bbi, O\u02bbahu, Maui, and Hawai\u02bbi. CEO Matias Bessaso said demand for residential solar has been exponential since midsummer, and the company stopped taking new clients weeks ago.<\/p>\n He added that it has been particularly hard to keep up on Maui. After the 2023 fires, Rising Sun lost several projects and had to downsize its workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, we are about a quarter of the size that we were two years ago, and demand is as high, if not higher, than it was at other times,\u201d Bessaso said.<\/p>\n Hawai\u02bbi Solar Energy Association<\/p>\n Rooftop solar on several homes in Hawai\u02bbi.<\/p>\n On Hawai\u02bbi Island, Blue Sky Energy owner Joshua Mason is working to build out his business\u2019s capacity to try to meet the needs of new customers looking to get solar systems installed under the wire.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also giving customers an out if their project misses the cutoff for the tax credit.<\/p>\n \u201cOur commitment has been that if we were unable to get the project done this year, that they’d be under no obligation to complete the project in 2026,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n Solar Kaua\u02bbi, which is run by the Lucas family, is one of the few companies that told HPR it still has room for new residential customers.<\/p>\n Elliot Lucas said that Kaua\u02bbi homeowners looking to install solar panels that generate less than 10 kilowatts of power can get expedited approvals for their permits.<\/p>\n But most of his customers opt for something bigger, which requires a more drawn-out permitting process. If a customer is just starting now, he believes it\u2019s 50-50 if those systems will be completed in time to be eligible for the tax credit.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you wait another couple of weeks, I\u2019d say it’s a no-go completely,\u201d Lucas said.<\/p>\n Solar industry looks ahead to 2026<\/p>\n The Hawai\u02bbi Solar Energy Association\u2019s Rocky Mould said the elimination of the tax credit is a negative for customers and for the industry. But with Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s high cost of electricity, he thinks rooftop solar still makes sense for many homeowners in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cRooftop solar and energy storage combined really can help people reduce their energy costs, even without this 30% federal tax credit,\u201d Mould told HPR.<\/p>\n Solar companies across the board echoed that sentiment, but also shared that they were bracing for a drop in business in the new year.<\/p>\n Some businesses said that they would try to absorb some costs to keep prices attractive to residential customers, while others said they planned to shift their focus to the commercial market.<\/p>\n But Solar Kaua\u02bbi, which has been around for 45 years, isn\u2019t planning any big changes to its business model.<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn’t the first time that there’s been ripples in the industry,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cWe just kind of stay lean, and there’ll always be something for us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawai\u02bbi Public Radio exists to serve all of Hawai\u2019i, and it\u2019s the people of Hawai\u2019i who keep us independent and strong. Help keep us strong to serve you in the future.\u00a0Donate today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The deadline to claim a major federal tax credit for rooftop solar is three months away. But for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-196737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n