Kauai Habitat gets federal funds for solar water systems

Kauai Habitat for Humanity announced on May 30 that it received a federal grant of $215,880 to install solar water heating systems and thermal insulation in 32 Habitat built homes. Kauai Habitat was one of 17 organizations selected to receive funding from the total $19.9 million to help rural residents and businesses become more energy efficient awarded through the USDA Rural Development’s High Energy Cost Grant program.

The grant may be used to acquire, construct, extend, upgrade or otherwise improve energy generation, transmission or distribution facilities serving communities in which the average residential cost for home energy exceeds 275 percent of the national average. The grants can’t be used to pay utility bills, to purchase fuel or to be used for the sole benefit of the applicant.

In July 2007, Kauai Habitat’s board resolved to create an Energy Efficiency Fund to install solar water heating systems on all new Habitat homes. The USDA grant will allow Habitat to include solar systems in all the houses it will build for the next few years.

Kauai Habitat, founded in 1993 after hurricane Iniki, has completed 95 houses around the island from Hanalei to Kekaha, providing 522 people with safe, decent, affordable shelter. Currently, Habitat is developing the 24-acre Ele‘ele Iluna subdivision which will eventually include 125 residential lots.