Below is an interview by Pacific Business News Senior Digital Editor Christina OʻConnor published on Sept. 30 2025

Hawaii Pacific Solar CEO navigates solar industry’s changing tides

Bob Johnston built a career in real estate in Colorado and South Carolina before eventually moving to Maui, where he co-founded a real estate development company. But when the 2008 financial crisis hit, he started to look for other opportunities beyond real estate.

To that end, he launched Hawaii Pacific Solar, and today the company has 25 employees and provides comprehensive solar installation mainly for commercial projects. Its operations span the state, with a focus on Maui and Oahu. Some of its projects have included installing photovoltaic systems in a number of public schools, at Ala Moana Center and for the homes at Kapalani Estates.

Johnston said he was inspired to get into the industry because he saw a lot of parallels between solar and real estate — both involve permitting and construction — and at the time it was a growing field, with tax credits and the state’s mandate to reach 100% renewable energy by 2045. But what has kept him in the industry is that solar is “really rewarding,” he said.

“[When you’re] developing solar projects, the community and the general public really embrace what you’re doing,” he said.

Generally, for businesses in particular, what do you think are the benefits of choosing solar?

Hawaii has the highest utility rates in the country. So between that and the fact that there’s a strong public policy towards renewable energy — and I think when you look at the economics, the price of solar has come down dramatically over the last 10 years — it makes it a relatively easy decision, especially if you can take advantage of the tax credits that are available, both at the state and federal level. And if you can’t — we do a lot of things for government, Department of Education, nonprofits who can’t take advantage of the ITCs [investment tax credits] and other tax benefits — then we can provide what’s called a power purchase agreement, where a third party owns the system, takes the benefits of the tax credits, and then sells power to the off-taker at a much reduced rate from what they would be paying to the utility.

Your business has been through a lot of tough times over the years, including the recession, COVID, and increased competition in the marketplace. What has been your approach to dealing with these different changes?

It’s not just these events like COVID or the financial crisis. It seems like every year there’s challenges on the tax front. There was a period where every year the Hawaii state Legislature would take a look at Hawaii’s tax credits and would threaten to have them removed or reduced. And now we’re faced with the sunsetting of the federal tax credits coming up in the next few years. And I think [I am able to navigate these changes] because of my real estate training, which is very cyclical. You really learn how to manage your business for the circumstances that prevail at the time, whether they be detrimental to the business or difficult situations, or ramping up when business is good. For instance, over the next 18 to 24 to 36 months, because of the sunsetting of the federal tax credits, there’s going to be a lot of business — a lot the developers and partners that we have are frantic to get projects up and running and completed by these deadlines. And that, of course, presents a different type of challenge where we have to ramp up and manage these various projects over a relatively short period of time.

What is your outlook for the future of the solar industry?

Beyond 2027 — which is one of the deadlines for this federal ITC sunset, and then the next one is 2030 — beyond that, it’s a good question. … At some point, we have to manage our business without these federal and state benefits and tax credits. So I think that beyond this current ITC deadline, there is going to continue to be opportunity. And of course, there’s the state mandate — there’s a strong public policy and public sentiment towards renewable energy here in Hawaii.