Clarifies definition of "renewable energy producer" to include thermal energy sold to customers of district cooling systems, for purposes of leasing public lands. (SD1)

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Act 102, Session Laws of Hawaii 2002, relating to leasing of public lands for renewable energy purposes, authorized the board of land and natural resources to lease public lands to renewable energy producers through direct negotiation. The intention of Act 102 was to encourage the development of renewable energy projects and to reduce the State's dependency on fossil fuels.

Act 95, Session Laws of Hawaii 2004, relating to renewable energy, required electric utilities to meet a renewable portfolio standard of fifteen per cent for 2015 and a goal of twenty per cent for 2020. Act 95 also included seawater air-conditioning district cooling systems in the definition of renewable energy technologies.

With the addition of seawater air-conditioning district cooling systems to the definition of renewable energy, the legislature recognized and codified an important precedent and principal established by solar water heating, that the displacement of electrical use by thermal applications of renewable energy technologies is just as important as electricity generation from renewable resources.

The purpose of this Act is to amend the definition of renewable energy producers to include producers of thermal energy from renewable energy resources, including those who produce cooling from seawater air conditioning district cooling systems, so that they will be eligible for leases of public land.

SECTION 2. Section 171-95, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:

"(c) For the purposes of this section, "renewable energy producer" means any producer of electrical or thermal energy produced by wind, solar energy, hydropower, landfill gas, waste-to-energy, ocean thermal energy conversion, cold seawater, wave energy, biomass including municipal solid waste, biofuels or fuels derived from organic sources, hydrogen fuels derived primarily from renewable energy, or fuel cells where the fuel is derived primarily from renewable sources that [sell] sells all of the net power produced from the demised premises to an electric utility company regulated under chapter 269[.] or that sells all of the thermal energy that the producer produces to customers of district cooling systems. Up to twenty-five per cent of the power produced by a renewable energy producer and sold to the utility or to district cooling system customers may be derived from fossil fuels."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.