e) Domestic/Local PV equipment manufacturing:
No clear data could be found for domestic manufacturing.
f) Government incentive Programs:
There are various state and federal incentives designed to encourage the growth of solar industry in Hawaii.
1) Corporate Tax credit: The Hawaii Energy Tax Credits allow individuals or corporations to claim an income tax credit of 35% of the cost of equipment and installation of a solar thermal or photovoltaic (PV) system (maximum of amount of $5000)
2) Performance based incentive (Feed-in Tariff): Under this provision, depending on the system capacity classified under three categories qualified projects will receive a fixed rate over a 20-year contract.
TIER 1 PHOTOVOLTAICS LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO 20KW $0.218/KWh
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Considering the current day scenario of the PV industry in Hawaii, I wouldn’t recommend entering the small residential scale of rooftop installation for some time. Instead investing in large solar farms and sell energy to the major utility companies like HECO which wouldn’t be a major barrier as, if the HECO-NextEra deal doesn’t go through, HECO would have to look for third party solar farms for energy generation. Following the Kauai model, to help firstly, prevent the already draining company profits on net metering incentive and additional infrastructural costs and secondly, fulfil the implementation of the new proposed pricing structure to ensure “safety and fairness” to the non PV consumers paying in an excess of $50 million compared to the PV consumers.[15] Even if the deal of the buyout goes through we would collaborate with NextEra, a Fortune 200 company[16], by acting as an investing partner in the projects as they expand their grid in Hawaii, profiting us, firstly, by investing with a company as big as NextEra we could make a big chunk of profits. Secondly, with the falling prices of PV modules and equipment reducing the payback period to 2-3 years recovering the initial investment won’t be a major hurdle. Thereafter, with the profits we could further expand by entering into the small residential roof mounted solar market which won’t be a major problem as after having so much experience in the Hawaiian PV business over the years, forming a consumer base should not be an