STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2619

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2279

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2279, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a task force to study the feasibility of creating a recycling program for photovoltaic waste and to develop methods to address the expected increase in photovoltaic waste.

Your Committee received written comments in support of the measure from the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and one individual.  The Department of Health and the Public Utilities Commission submitted written comments on this measure.

     Your Committee finds that photovoltaic systems have a useful life of approximately twenty to thirty years.  With the recent growth of residential and commercial photovoltaic installations, photovoltaic waste will place a strain on Hawaii's disposal services in the coming decades.  Your Committee finds that this measure is a proactive approach to address and develop solutions to a foreseeable problem.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion on the measure; and

(2)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style, clarity, and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2279, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2279, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair