Suzuki

KAHULUI – On the heels of being awarded seventh in the nation for annual solar watts-per-customer earlier this year, the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) recently named Maui Electric Company tops in the country for cumulative number of solar systems per customer.

Since the inception of the solar program in 2001, MECO has added 29.3 solar systems for every 1,000 customers.

Hawaiian Electric and Hawaii Electric Light Company ranked second and fourth, respectively.

“We are strongly committed to helping our customers add as much solar as possible without compromising the reliability of electrical service all of our customers deserve,” said MECO President Sharon Suzuki.

“While we are honored by this award, we recognize that we have a long way to go and will continue to find ways to safely accept more clean as-available sources of energy.”

Haleakala Solar workers last year installed photovoltaic panels at AAAAA Rent-A-Space in Honokowai. The 600-kilowatt array is the largest commercial PV power generation system in Maui County.

In the same report, under the category of cumulative solar watts-per-customer, SEPA ranked MECO second in the nation with 209.3 watts installed per customer.

The findings of SEPA’s annual Utility Solar Rankings survey identify the most active utilities in the country based on the amount of new solar power added to their systems, and on the amount of new solar power relative to the number of customers they serve.

The full top ten report containing additional details about the total solar capacity of U.S. utilities, rankings by regions, geographical diversity and other utility solar trends is available at www.SEPATop10.org.