Commercial Photovoltaic

Commercial Photovoltaics


The economics of commercial solar are compelling.

Utilizing government incentives, a business can recover 75% or more of the cost of a photovoltaic system in the first year. A photovoltaic system can pay for itself in 3 years and will continue to offset a predictable portion of your utility costs for 20 or more years.

What your business will pay without a photovoltaic system

Monthly electric bill Energy costs over 20 years*

$1,000.00 $396,791.00
$5,000.00 $1,983,957.00
$10,000.00 $3,967,914.00
$20,000.00 $7,935,829.00

The time is now.

However, the window of opportunity may be limited. Changes in tax policy and HECO technical limitations could reduce the viability of the business photovoltaic systems in the near future. This trending chart summarizes the current and possible future business photovoltaic incentives. Up arrows indicate positive incentive trends, down arrows negative trends, and horizontal arrows, neutral conditions. This chart is only our best prediction of future trends, as tax and utility policy developments are difficult to predict.

Present 2014 to 2016
Highest electricity costs in U.S.
State Tax credit 35% May decrease
Federal Tax credit 30% Expires 12/31/2016
Federal Bonus depreciation TBD
Federal MACRS depreciation
PV module costs decline
HECO circuit capacity limitations

*based on HECO J rate of $0.30/KWhr with annual increases averaging 5%.