HGIA asks PUC to free $18 million in GEMS capital to speed solar for underserved households

The Hawaii Green Infrastructure Authority (HGIA) asked the Public Utilities Commission during a status conference to rescind PUC Order 34940 so HGIA can release $18,000,000 in GEMS loan capital for nonprofits and small businesses and recycle principal repayments to finance more projects.

HGIA presented fiscal 2025 highlights and fiscal 2026 goals and told commissioners the request is urgent because recent federal changes to the 30% solar tax credit make timelier project starts materially more valuable to some applicants. “The clock has started ticking for the 30% federal solar tax credit,” HGIA’s presenter, Gwen, said during the session, urging quicker deployment so projects can capture available federal benefits.

HGIA said the commission’s earlier decision to limit use of GEMS funds combined with recent legislative and tax changes produced a surge and backlog of applications. The authority reported a 241% increase in applications during an 11-month period in 2024 compared with the prior year, said Gwen, and told the commission it believes roughly 30% of 2024 permits issued on Oahu were for underserved households. HGIA closed its application portal on Nov. 30, 2024, to work through the backlog and reopened a new loan portal on April 22, 2025 (Earth Day).

HGIA provided program details and pipeline numbers. It reported about $22,000,000 available for solar-plus-storage loans, roughly 30 active nonprofit/small-business applications aggregating more than $23,000,000 in total project costs, and the recent expiration of 12 residential…