Aiona touring state to push bond fund for clean energy

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona is touring the state this week to promote what he calls a win-win-win-win, no-cost approach to fulfilling the state's Clean Energy Initiative: a bond fund to help homeowners and small businesses obtain the upfront money they need to install money-saving alternative energy systems.

Aiona visited Mayor Charmaine Tavares and county officials Monday, and afterward he said: "They were very supportive of the concept, although they had some questions about the details."

The concept would be for the state to sell general obligation bonds, up to $50 million initially. The money would be loaned to property owners for energy audits to determine what sort of retrofitted systems would work for them, and then to buy and install them.

Clean energy systems - such as but not limited to solar water heaters - can pay for themselves, Aiona said, but finding the capital to go ahead can be a problem. Fifteen states already have adopted clean energy investment bonds, a movement that started in Berkeley, Calif., and in Colorado, he said.

The loans would be recorded as an assessment on a property's tax bill, to be paid back over a period of time, perhaps 20 years.

The loan would be a lien against the property, Aiona acknowledged, so if an owner failed to make payments, that could affect his ability to sell his property, compared with taking out a bank loan to buy the system.

However, the savings per month could be considerable. Providing a sample situation, Aiona said that with a homeowner whose monthly electric bill was $250, an energy audit might find that solar water would save $200 per month, and a 20-year, 5 percent loan might cost $800 a year.

The homeowner could then reduce his annual savings by the difference: $2,400 minus $800 equaling $1,600.

Not only that, Aiona said, the loans would stimulate businesses to conduct the audits and install the systems, would contribute to energy security by reducing the need for imported fuel and would result in a cleaner environment.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, which would administer the loan fund, has estimated that each million dollars spent on alternative energy creates 13 direct jobs - an important point in Hawaii's economic slump, Aiona said.

It would also create secondary jobs, such as for repair and maintenance, jobs which the state's community colleges are already beginning to train workers for.

Going to the financial markets for general obligation bonds should not be difficult, Aiona said, even though the bond rating companies have begun to reduce Hawaii's credit. Fifty million dollars is a relatively small amount, he said.

He said he foresees that homeowners and small businesses would make use of the money, while large businesses like resorts would be able to find their own funding.

The kinds of eligible renewal energy systems would include solar hot water, solar photovoltaic, biogas and small wind systems. Eligible energy efficiency improvements could be installation and/or physical modifications to property designed to reduce energy consumption, but not including such things as more efficient washing machines.

Other eligible improvements might include air sealing and ventilation, insulation, space heating and cooling, water heating, hardwired lighting, daylighting, reflective roofs or improvements to pool equipment and landscaping.

An applicant would have to calculate current energy consumption and costs compared with potential benefits.

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.