Hawaii gives $450k solar grant to Filipino Community Center

The Filipino Community Center (FilCom) building in Hawaii.

HONOLULU– Filipinos here will be dancing under a new light this year. Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie on Monday presented a $450,000 check to The Filipino Community Center, Inc. (FilCom), to fund a new photovoltaic (PV) system in the organization’s facilities in Waipahu.

“This project will produce electricity for the FilCom Center that will substantially reduce its electric bills and move our community toward energy independence,” said Abercrombie.

Built in 2002, the three-story, 50,000-square-foot FilCom Center is the largest Filipino community center in the United States and outside of the Philippines.

“The use of solar energy is not only good for the environment, but it will also create a substantial amount of savings to the Filipino Community Center,” said Edmund Aczon, the board chair.

“That savings can be used to expand the center’s many social and human services programs that benefit the Filipino community and the larger community as a whole.”

The PV system is made up of solar panels that provide renewable solar power-generated electricity. The system is being funded through a state capital- improvement grant, which the Hawaii Legislature appropriated last year.

Officials said the grant would be used to construct and install a roof-mounted, micro-inverter, Internet monitoring PV system that is expected to produce approximately 114,000 kilowatts of power per year, or about 40 percent of FilCom’s current electricity usage.

The installation is will be completed within six months. FilCom Center officials are currently calling for bids or proposals “to plan, design and install” the photovoltaic power system on the roof area.