the end of rooftop solar?

Hawaii’s rooftop solar industry, already struggling with a recent reduction in an incentive program,could come to a standstill next year.

Last month, with little fanfare, the state Public Utilities Commission announced it will cap new residential and commercial solar projects at 25 megawatts or about 4,500 new systems on Oahu.It’s likely the cap will be met by the middle of next year, if not sooner. Once it is met, no additional rooftop solar systems will be approved for connection to the grid.

The PUC decided to halt new rooftop solar installations to prevent damage to the grid and allow other renewable energy sources — such as wind and geothermal — to catch up with residential solar.
The cap puts in jeopardy an industry that has grown to 115 companies with 2,200 employees,according to the Solar Energy Industry Association’s count as of September.

“It will be gone in 2016,” said Chris DeBone, managing partner at Hawaii Energy Connection, who expects the cap to be met by May or June.

PUC Chairman Randy Iwase said the cap was necessary because Hawaii needs a variety of renewable energy resources to achieve its goal of 100 percent renewable electric power by 2045,and that problems with HECO’s old grid leave little space for all resources to connect.

Hawaiian Electric Co. has connected 51,000 rooftop solar systems, or 272 megawatts, to its Oahu grid. So far this year, HECO has approved more than 9,700 solar system applications, or about 58 megawatts worth of power, for Oahu.

Representatives from the solar industry said the cap leaves room for4,000 to 5,000 additional systems. The number would be lower if commercial systems are included.

Roy Skaggs, project developer at Alternate Energy Inc., said the limit will be met by summer. “It’s not long,” he said.

Drew Bradley, director of business development at REC Solar, said it would be met within months.

“From the time it was announced to the time it is fully subscribed, it is not more than three to six months, if that,” Bradley said.

Colin Yost, principal at RevoluSun, said he could see the solar industry hitting the limit as soon as March.

The 25-megawatt cap on solar was part of the PUC’s Oct. 12 order that roughly cut in half the credit rooftop solar owners get for power sent into the grid, and raised the minimum monthly bill for solar customers to $25.

The cap applies to applications for exporting systems that were submitted on or after Oct. 14.

After the cap is reached, HECO customers will still be able to add solar to their house but will not be able to send power to the grid. They will be able to take power from the grid when needed. Customers looking to install solar will either need to curtail the excess energy their systems produce or get a battery to prevent their excess solar energy from being sent to the grid.

“Once grid supply is gone or the cap has been met, then energy storage or energy management is going to be a necessity, not an option,” DeBone said.

Yost, of RevoluSun, said the order was made with bad timing because batteries are too expensive for the average person, noting there is no state tax incentive for batteries and that a 30 percent federal tax credit will sunset at the end of 2016.

Iwase said the “initial” cap will be revisited in a year and a half.

“Nothing is set in stone,” Iwase said. “We realize there has to be modernization of the grid to accommodate PVs and other things. We are hoping, anticipating that we will be prepared to face a Phase 2 decision at that time.”

Iwase said the PUC is also pushing the utility to modernize the grid. The PUC ordered HECO to improve the utility’s “Power Supply Improvement Plan” earlier this month. The plan includes a timelinefor retiring fossil fuel plants, using new technology such as energy storage and adding a diverse portfolio of low-cost renewables.

“Everything has to evolve,” Iwase said. “We have to evolve on the grid. We have to evolve on the kinds of programs and initiatives if we are going to achieve 100 percent renewable.”
Iwase said rooftop solar is not the only option, but just one component of the state’s 100 percent renewable plan.

“Is it important? Yes, it is,” he said. “So is battery storage residential, battery storage utility grade and time of use (different electric rates for different times of day).”

Iwase said he wanted to see more community solar, community wind farms, utility-scale battery storage, hydrogen fuel cells and geothermal development.

refugee terrorists?

Washington (CNN)Even before the debris from the Paris terrorist attacks was swept away, politicians began sounding the alarm that Syrian refugees could be a national security threat to the United States. The issue has dominated the U.S. political conversation during the week since gunmen and suicide bombers terrorized Paris on a Friday night.

All Republican presidential candidates called on President Barack Obama to renege on his pledge to admit 10,000 refugees fleeing Syria's brutal civil war into the U.S. and argued instead for a full stop, fearing terrorists could infiltrate their ranks.

Thirty-one governors have declared Syrian refugees unwelcome in their states and on Thursday the House passed a bill to bar refugees from Syria and Iraq from entering the U.S. Nearly 50 Democrats joined 242 Republicans to pass the bill, which the White House has threatened to veto. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate, suggested the U.S. only accept Christian refugees. Ben Carson, another candidate, likened refugees to "rabid dogs" threatening the neighborhood.

But those responses ignore one very important fact: the refugee program is quite simply the toughest way for a foreigner to legally enter the United States. There are other security gaps that would be easier for would-be terrorists to exploit.

As of now, none of the Paris attackers have been confirmed as having entered Europe as refugees.

In fact, most of the Paris attackers were European citizens born in France or Belgium. Two of them appear to have entered Europe through Greece although it doesn't appear that they came in through a refugee program.

A Syrian passport found next to one of the attackers' bodies stoked fears that the man had been a refugee. That has not yet been confirmed, although top European officials have suggested the passport was doctored, which raises its own set of questions, but does not confirm the suspected attacker was a refugee. Others have definitively been shown to be European citizens.

Perhaps more importantly, the European refugee admission system is dramatically different from the U.S. system for Syrians, in large part because the U.S. is geographically separated from Syria. The U.S. has the opportunity to do far more vetting before refugees arrive on their shores.

How does a refugee get into the U.S.?

Refugees must undergo an 18- to 24-month screening process, minimum, that the United Nations' refugee arm oversees. And that's before individual countries even begin to consider a refugee's application and conduct their own additional interviews and background checks.

The screening process generally includes multiple interviews, background checks and an extensive cross-referencing process that tests refugee's stories against others and accounts from sources on the ground in their home country.

Throughout that process, U.N. officials and local government officials in temporary host countries like Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon look to determine the legitimacy of asylum seekers' claims and ensure that they meet the criteria of a refugee, including that they are not and have not been involved in any fighting or terrorist activities.

Refugees also have their retinas scanned and have their fingerprints lifted.

Christopher Boian, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, called the process "stringent" and "long and complex."

Paris bombing

Paris (CNN) On a night when thousands of Paris residents and tourists were reveling and fans were enjoying a soccer match between France and world champion Germany, horror struck in an unprecedented manner. Terrorists -- some with AK-47s, some reportedly with bombs strapped to them -- attacked sites throughout the French capital and at the stadium where the soccer match was underway.

ISIS claims responsiblity for Paris attacks

Scores were killed in the coordinated attacks late Friday, leaving a nation in mourning and the world in shock. CNN will update this story as information comes in:

Complete coverage on the Paris attacks