Solar hot water heaters are heating up in Hawaii. As a means of promoting energy efficiency in homes, reducing the state's greenhouse gas contributions as well as fossil fuel-based electricity consumption, Hawaiian Electric Company began offering rebates to homes that converted from electric to solar powered hot water heaters.

To date, the program has led to the installation of more than 50,000 hot water heaters. Last year Hawaiian Electric paid rebates of $1,000 to more than 8,200 customers at who converted to solar powered heaters.

Customers receive rebates from both the utility and local and federal governments which reduced electricity bills and quickly offset the initial cost (ranging from $1,700-$2,600 according to Solar Direct, for a solar powered heater.

The program has been so successful in meeting its goals and is so popular that the state has now regulated that all new homes built beginning in 2010 must use solar powered hot water heaters making use of the state's vast sunlight resources to power showers, baths, and cooking (I'd also add cleaning, but really, no one should clean with hot water anymore: cold is energy efficient, even if powered by the sun).

For a state that uses electricity generated from fossil fuels (primarily diesel generators) for almost all of its energy needs, mandating that homes use clean energy is a major step in reducing carbon emissions.

It is an even larger step for the clean energy movement because it proves that change is possible even on islands segregated from a major energy supply. Across the country, many efforts are gearing up to transfer to clean energy, but because so many of those projects require vast amounts of funding, land and contract negotiations, and finally operating infrastructure, those projects will take years to complete putting clean energy off for several years.

Hawaii is proving clean energy can happen now and can happen on a much more localized level, with the average consumer. The only rub is that the building of new homes has slowed across the country and no doubt in Hawaii as well, a land of limited space and a high cost of living. To overcome this, perhaps the regulation should mandate that a new solar powered water heater be installed at the sale of a home, similar to other state and local regulations that require a home inspection at the sale of an existing home. The overall housing market is still down, but soon enough homes will be bought at low prices as the economy begins to correct itself providing a faster opportunity to implement solar powered water heating.

Photo from Solar Direct