A solar permit is the moment a specific Hawaii home committed to a specific project, weeks after the sale and weeks to months before the install. This page publishes what Scout Data’s permit database shows for the state: 8,363 residential solar permits in 2025 and 15,999 over the 24 months from September 2024 through August 2026, on 15,551 distinct homes. The national picture is on the U.S. solar permit statistics page; the methodology is at the bottom.
- 2025 permits
- 8,363
- Homes with solar
- —
- Median declared value
- $33,000
- Battery attach, 2025
- 85.1%
Residential solar permits in Hawaii by year
Permits filed each year since 2015, and the number of distinct homes behind them. A single project can carry more than one permit, so homes run below permits.
| Year | Residential solar permits | Homes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 8,675 | 8,354 |
| 2016 | 6,365 | 6,040 |
| 2017 | 3,080 | 2,893 |
| 2018 | 3,068 | 2,921 |
| 2019 | 3,891 | 3,727 |
| 2020 | 5,423 | 5,218 |
| 2021 | 5,123 | 4,884 |
| 2022 | 6,417 | 6,067 |
| 2023 | 8,966 | 8,480 |
| 2024 | 8,147 | 7,944 |
| 2025 | 8,363 | 8,206 |
| 2026 (through August) | 4,746 | 4,698 |
Hawaii’s tracked permitting peaked in 2023 at 8,966 permits. 2025 came in at 8,363, down 7% from 2023. The 2026 row covers January through August only and should not be read against a full year. Early years understate activity more than recent ones, because jurisdiction coverage has grown over time; every figure is a floor on true activity.
Where the permits are: Hawaii’s busiest counties
The ten counties with the most residential solar permits from September 2024 through August 2026. Honolulu County alone is about 76% of the state’s total.
| County | Permits, 24 months | Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Honolulu County | 12,114 | 11,781 |
| Maui County | 2,517 | 2,432 |
| Kauai County | 774 | 753 |
| Hawaii County | 594 | 585 |
How many Hawaii homes already have solar
Aerial imagery covers too few of Hawaii’s 288,670 single-family roofs to publish an honest adoption rate for the state, so this page does not. The permit counts above are the better measure of activity here; the states where the imagery read is publishable are on homes with solar by state.
Batteries on Hawaii solar permits
Of 8,363 residential solar permits filed in Hawaii in 2025, 7,113 record energy storage as part of the job, an attach rate of 85.1%. This is a floor: a permit whose description never mentions storage counts as having none, so the number mixes real adoption with how much detail the state’s permit offices write down. The national curve, and why it broke upward in 2024, is on solar battery attachment rates.
The bankruptcy overhang in Hawaii
0 Hawaii homes hold a residential solar permit filed under the name of an installer on the Scout Data bankrupt installer list, on or before that company’s petition or closure date. Each is a homeowner with a system, or a half-finished project, and no company behind it, which is the population the orphaned solar systems opportunity and the bankrupt-installer datasets are built on.
Other states
The same statistics for California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Nevada, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut. More states are added each week; the index is at solar permits by state, and the national totals are on the U.S. solar permit statistics page.
Methodology
- Source. Scout Data’s production permit database, 120M+ building permits across 2,456 U.S. counties, joined to property records on 160M+ properties and to an aerial roof classification of single-family homes.
- What is counted. Residential permits whose own text names a solar, photovoltaic or PV installation, one row per permit at its latest status. Commercial, agricultural and utility-scale projects are excluded, and so are permits with no usable issue date. This is the same cohort as the battery attachment page; the national statistics page was derived earlier under a slightly wider deduplication rule, so its annual totals run a few percent above the sum of the state pages.
- Windows. The year table uses the permit issue year, with 2026 covering January through August. County rankings, home counts and declared values cover September 2024 through August 2026.
- Valuations. Median declared valuation on permits carrying a non-zero value, computed exactly rather than sampled, and shown only where at least 200 permits carry one. Jurisdictions differ in what value they require; treat the median as conservative.
- Rooftop solar. The denominator is single-family homes whose roof has an aerial classification, not all homes, because an unclassified roof would otherwise read as no solar. The share is published only where at least 60% of the state’s single-family roofs are classified.
- Batteries. A 2025 permit counts as recording storage when its text says so. Jurisdiction form boilerplate that mentions batteries as an instruction to applicants, rather than as installed equipment, is excluded. Rates are floors and are shown only for states with at least 1,000 permits in the year.
- Bankrupt installers. Homes with a permit whose installer name starts with a company name, or alias, on the bankrupt installer list, filed on or before that company’s petition or closure date where one is known. This is narrower than the permit-level rule on the national bankruptcy page, whose totals are therefore larger.
- Coverage. Not every jurisdiction publishes permits and Scout Data does not ingest every one that does. All counts are floors on true activity. States with fewer than 1,000 permits in the trailing 24 months do not get a page.
Derived September 16, 2026. If you spot something that looks wrong, tell us; we would rather correct a number than defend it.
Frequently asked questions
How many residential solar permits were issued in Hawaii in 2025?
8,363 residential solar permits were issued in Hawaii in 2025, on 8,206 homes, which ranks 9th among U.S. states in Scout Data's permit database. That compares with 8,147 in 2024 and 8,966 in 2023.
Which Hawaii county has the most solar permits?
Honolulu County, with 12,114 residential solar permits from September 2024 through August 2026, about 76% of the state's total for the period.
What share of Hawaii homes have solar panels?
Aerial imagery covers too small a share of Hawaii's single-family roofs to publish a state-level adoption rate; the permit counts on this page are the better measure of activity.
How much does a residential solar project cost in Hawaii?
The median declared valuation on Hawaii residential solar permits issued from September 2024 through August 2026 is $33,000, across 13,491 permits that carried a value. Declared valuations understate contract prices in many jurisdictions, so treat this as a floor rather than a market price.
Can I cite these statistics?
Yes, cite freely with a link to this page. All figures were derived on September 16, 2026 from Scout Data's permit and property databases; the methodology section explains what is and is not counted.