Electric lawnmowers are a thing of the past in most countries.
But in Hawaii, there are signs that some people are finally turning to electric lawn mowers as a way to reduce their carbon footprint.
In the islands biggest city, Honolulu, there’s been a dramatic decline in the number of electric lawns, according to a report by the Honolulu Electric Company.
Electric lawns are still the norm in the capital, but residents have been using them less, the report said.
A total of 2,721 electric lawn and hedge trimmers were installed in Honolulu in the first quarter of 2020, down from a peak of 7,716 in the same period a year earlier, according the Hawaii Electric Company (HEC).
The average annual rate of decline in electric lawn trimmers was 9.3% over the same time period.
However, electric trimmers accounted for less than one-third of the total number of lawn trimmer installations in the city, according TOA.
The city’s Electric Service Commission (ESC) said in a statement that the electric trimmer installation had dropped by 15% over two years, due to an “accelerating and increasing demand for electric lawn service.”
The ESC added that the city had more than doubled the number a year to 2,400 electric trims in 2020.
Hawaii Electric Utility (HIEV) spokesperson Dan Kelly said that while electric trimmings were being used less, they were still being used in the most efficient way possible.
“It’s really not about whether we are using them or not, it’s about the best way we can make use of them,” Kelly said.
The report came just days after the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) reported a record-high $9.3bn in losses for Hawaii Electric Service Corporation (HIESC), which owns about half of the island’s electric fleet.
The company has been under fire from environmental groups and the public for the last three years over its failure to reduce emissions and to ensure that the company’s own pollution-reduction programs are operating at full capacity.
The EPA found that the island operator was violating federal air quality standards by failing to cut down on its carbon emissions by at least 95% by 2020, despite the state’s strict air-quality rules.
The commission said that in 2014, HIESC had failed to meet its emissions reduction targets by 50%, and that the Hawaiian Electric Service Company had failed by more than 70%.
The Hawaii Electric company has appealed the decision.