Hawaii pays you more for solar in the evening than at midday. On Oahu the export credit is 13.5¢ during the day and 32.9¢ between 5pm and 9pm, and the same pattern holds on every island at different numbers. That inverts the usual logic of a rooftop system: the power your panels make at noon is worth the least, and the power your battery gives back after dinner is worth the most. Every real incentive question in Hawaii follows from that single fact, including whether a system without storage makes sense at all. A second clock matters this year: the state credit that covers 35% of the bill is in its last year before an income test and a statewide limit take hold.
Your Island and Your Clock Set the Rate
New interconnections since April 1, 2024 go onto Smart DER Export, established under Public Utilities Commission Docket 2019-0323. Credits are time-of-day and set separately for each island. These are the rates on the February 1, 2025 rate sheet.
Island | Daytime | Peak, 5pm to 9pm | Overnight |
|---|---|---|---|
Oahu | 13.5¢ | 32.9¢ | 18.9¢ |
Hawaii Island | 10.6¢ | 23.1¢ | 14.8¢ |
Maui | 6.6¢ | 18.2¢ | 13.1¢ |
Lanai | 26.7¢ | 40.8¢ | 25.9¢ |
Molokai | 17.9¢ | 27.2¢ | 17.4¢ |
Read across a row and the spread is roughly two and a half to one between daytime and peak. Read down a column and Maui daytime pays 6.6¢ while Lanai daytime pays 26.7¢, a four-fold difference inside the same state. There is no such thing as the Hawaii export rate, and any quote using one is using a number that does not exist. Kauai is served by Kauai Island Utility Cooperative and sits outside this framework entirely.
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Three Closed Programs Still Being Advertised
Hawaii has closed more export programs than any other state, and each closure left a generation of marketing material behind. If a company mentions any of these as available to you, they are working from something old.
- Net Energy Metering closed in October 2015. More than a decade ago. Customers on it were not required to move, which is why you will meet neighbors with far better terms than you can get.
- Customer Grid Supply, Customer Grid Supply Plus and Smart Export all closed on March 29, 2024. Three programs, one closing date, replaced by Smart DER Export three days later.
- Customer Grid Supply era customers transition out seven years after their contract start. If you are on one of those, know that date before you sign. Original NEM and NEM Plus customers are not required to transition.
The pattern matters more than the individual dates: Hawaii has revised residential export compensation roughly every three to five years for a decade. That is the risk profile you are buying into, and it is why the rate-lock option below is worth taking seriously.
The Seven-Year Lock Is the Real Decision
Smart DER Export offers an optional seven-year rate lock. Take it and your export credits hold for seven years. Decline it and the rates reset roughly every three years with Commission approval. In a state that has changed the rules four times in a decade, before deciding, ask the installer whether the quote assumes the rate lock.
Two practical conditions come with the program. An advanced meter is required, so interconnection depends on your utility installing one. And a non-export option exists for households that would rather consume everything they generate and send nothing back, which is a genuine choice here, given how far daytime credits sit below the 41.53¢ you pay for power.
Why a Battery Is Not Optional Here
Put the retail price and the export table side by side. Hawaii residential power costs 41.53¢ per kilowatt-hour, the highest in the United States by a wide margin. On Oahu a kilowatt-hour you export at noon earns 13.5¢, while the same kilowatt-hour held in a battery and used at 7pm saves you roughly the retail rate you pay, around the 41.53¢ statewide average (your island’s rate differs), or exported at 7pm earns 32.9¢.
That is a three-fold difference created purely by timing, and it is one of the largest such spreads in the country. It is also why “do I need storage” is the wrong question in Hawaii. Storage is the mechanism by which the state’s incentive structure actually pays. A system designed to dump power at midday is designed against the tariff it lives under.
The State Credit Is in Its Last Uncomplicated Year
Hawaii’s Renewable Energy Technologies Income Tax Credit, at section 235-12.5 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, covers 35% of the actual cost of a solar system, capped at $5,000 per system for single-family residential property. With the federal residential credit at $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21, this is now the only percentage-based subsidy a Hawaii homeowner can claim.
It was rewritten this year. Act 24, from Senate Bill 3125, applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026, and adds three things the credit has never had: an income test, a certificate, and a ceiling on the total the state will pay out.
What applies | Placed in service during 2026 | Tax years from 2027 |
|---|---|---|
Credit | 35% of cost, up to $5,000 per system | 35% of cost, up to $5,000 per system |
Income test | None | Disallowed in full if your adjusted gross income is over $175,000 filing alone or $350,000 filing jointly |
Certificate | Not required | Hawaii State Energy Office certifies your system and issues a certificate you file with your return |
Statewide annual limit | None | $40,000,000 in each of 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 |
After 2030 | Not applicable | $0 from January 1, 2031 |
Governor Green issued Executive Order 26-02 on June 12, 2026, preserving the credit as it stands for 2026 while leaving the Act 24 changes in place for 2027 onward. So a system placed in service this year is treated under the old rules, and one placed in service next year is not.
The income test is the change most likely to catch a Hawaii household by surprise, because it is a cliff rather than a taper: a dollar of adjusted gross income over the line disallows the credit in full, not partially. The statewide limit is the other one to understand, since $40,000,000 spread across every claimant in the state is a finite pot, and nothing in the law guarantees your claim arrives while there is money in it.
You Likely Will Not Qualify If
- You are on Kauai. Kauai Island Utility Cooperative sets its own terms and none of the Hawaiian Electric rates above apply to you.
- You expected to join Net Energy Metering, Customer Grid Supply or Smart Export. All are closed, the first since 2015 and the rest since March 29, 2024.
- Your utility cannot install an advanced meter at your property. It is a condition of the program, not an optional extra you can decline.
- You are counting on the 30% federal credit. Section 25D is $0 for purchased systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025 under Public Law 119-21.
- You were quoted a single statewide Hawaii export rate. There is not one. The number differs by island by up to four times.
- You earn over the new state credit limits and are installing next year. From tax year 2027 the state credit is disallowed in full above $175,000 of adjusted gross income filing alone, or $350,000 filing jointly. For a system placed in service during 2026 there is no income test at all.
What Hawaii Actually Rewards
Hawaii runs two incentives that pull in different directions. One is a cash credit worth up to $5,000, which the state has just voted to narrow and eventually end. The other is a price signal, and an unusually loud one: generate when the island needs power and you are paid well, generate when it does not and you are paid little. The credit is the part that is going away. The price signal is the part that will still be there in ten years.
Three things follow. Size storage to cover the 5pm to 9pm window rather than to survive an outage. Take the rate lock seriously given the revision history. And confirm your island’s table rather than a statewide figure. Leases and power purchase agreements are both authorized here, so third-party ownership remains available where many states have closed it. Our Hawaii cost guide covers pricing and the Hawaii installer list covers who does the work.
Hawaii Solar FAQs
No. Net Energy Metering closed to new customers in October 2015, and Customer Grid Supply, Customer Grid Supply Plus and Smart Export all closed on March 29, 2024. New interconnections since April 1, 2024 go onto Smart DER Export, which pays time-of-day export credits set separately for each island.
It depends on the island and the hour. On Oahu, 13.5¢ daytime, 32.9¢ between 5pm and 9pm and 18.9¢ overnight. Hawaii Island is 10.6/23.1/14.8¢, Maui 6.6/18.2/13.1¢, Lanai 26.7/40.8/25.9¢ and Molokai 17.9/27.2/17.4¢, per the February 1, 2025 rate sheet. There is no single statewide Hawaii export rate.
The tariff is built so that you effectively do. Power costs 41.53¢ per kilowatt-hour here, the highest in the country, while a kilowatt-hour exported at midday on Oahu earns 13.5¢. The same kilowatt-hour held in a battery and used at 7pm saves your island’s full retail rate, near the 41.53¢ statewide average, or exported then earns 32.9¢. That timing spread is among the largest in the country.
Ask the installer whether the quote assumes the lock before you decide. Smart DER Export offers an optional seven-year lock on your export credits; without it, rates reset roughly every three years with Commission approval. Hawaii has revised residential export compensation about every three to five years for a decade, so the lock protects against a pattern with a decade of history.
No. Kauai is served by Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, which sits outside the Hawaiian Electric framework and sets its own terms. The Smart DER Export rates cover Oahu, Hawaii Island, Maui, Lanai and Molokai. If you are on Kauai, ask the cooperative directly for its current export terms.
Yes, and it is the most valuable state solar credit in the country. Section 235-12.5 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes covers 35% of the actual cost of a solar system, capped at $5,000 per system for single-family residential property. Act 24 changes it for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026, adding an income test at $175,000 filing alone or $350,000 filing jointly, a certificate issued by the Hawaii State Energy Office, and a statewide limit of $40,000,000 a year through 2030 before it drops to $0 on January 1, 2031. Executive Order 26-02 preserved the current rules for systems placed in service during 2026.
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References & Research Sources
EcoGen America reviewed the Hawaiian Electric Smart DER Export program materials, the enrolled text of Senate Bill 3125 and Executive Order 26-02, federal energy data, and IRS guidance for this page. Sources accessed between June 10 and August 20, 2026.
- Hawaiian Electric. Smart DER Export rate sheet, February 1, 2025, PUC Docket 2019-0323. Per-island time-of-day export credits, the optional seven-year rate lock, the advanced meter requirement, the non-export option, and the closure dates for the prior programs (NEM October 2015; CGS, CGS Plus and Smart Export March 29, 2024). Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Hawaii State Legislature. Senate Bill 3125, enacted as Act 24. The 35% credit rate and $5,000 single-family cap under HRS 235-12.5, the income limits, the certification requirement, the annual statewide totals for 2027 through 2030, and the $0 rate from January 1, 2031. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Office of the Governor of Hawaii. Executive Order 26-02, June 12, 2026. Preserves the state renewable energy tax credit for 2026. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Form EIA-861 (2024) and Electric Power Monthly. Utility customer counts for Hawaiian Electric, Hawaii Electric Light, Maui Electric and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, and residential price data. Accessed August 20, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS). One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions. Guidance on the Public Law 119-21 termination of the Section 25D residential credit for systems whose installation is completed after December 31, 2025. Accessed August 20, 2026.
