STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2284

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2352

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 2352 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require government entities in the State that issue building permits to establish a self-certification process for behind-the-meter, customer-sited solar distributed energy resource systems that deems permit applications approved and allows applicants to proceed to build solar distributed energy resource system immediately; and

(2) Require government entities in the State that issue building permits to develop guidance for determining specific conditions when a Federal Emergency Management Agency-mandated No-Rise Certification is not required for a solar distributed energy resource system located in a regulatory floodway.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the 350Hawaii; Energy Advisors; Hawaii Solar Energy Association; Photonworks Engineering LLP; Grassroot Institute of Hawaii; Sunrun; Climate Protectors Coalition Hawaiʻi; EP Cube; Alternate Energy, Inc.; LegaSea Energy; Independent Energy; Inter‑Island Solar Supply/The Solaray Corporation; Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi; Sunspear Energy; and nine individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Contractors License Board and Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Public Utilities Commission.

Your Committees find that existing permitting processes add real costs to projects and make it harder for the State's residents and businesses to invest in clean energy, especially as federal incentives are being reduced. Adequate permitting review additionally plays an important role in ensuring that customer‑sited solar and energy storage systems are designed and installed in a manner that supports safe and reliable grid integration. By streamlining processes for certain solar and energy storage systems, this measure will expedite qualified projects while maintaining accountability and code compliance.

Your Committees acknowledge the concerns raised in testimony from the Department of Land and Natural Resources that landscape architects are not authorized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to certify floodplain development documentation. Your Committees also recognize the concerns raised in testimony from the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative that the self-certification process established by this measure, while relevant to larger grids like Oahu's, would potentially have a significant negative impact on Kauai's relatively smaller member-owned electric cooperative. Therefore, amendments to this measure are necessary to address these concerns.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that landscape architects shall not be included in the definition of "licensed design professional", to provide an attestation for the self‑certification process that the proposed project is not located within a special flood hazard area;

(2) Exempting member-owned electric cooperatives from the self-certification requirements for behind-the-meter, customer-sited solar distributed energy resource system projects;

(3) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose;

(4) Inserting an effective date of April 19, 2042, to encourage further discussion; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2352, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2352, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs and Government Operations,

________________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair