Sherilyn Hayashida

A Comparison of State-Level Carbon Reduction Strategies: A Case Study of Hawai‘i March 16, 2023 Abstract: State-level electricity standards are proliferating and becoming more ambitious, with numerous US states adopting a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and a small but increasing number of states participating in carbon pricing programs. The State of Hawai‘i has an ambitious RPS that requires 100% electricity generation through renewable sources by 2045. This study uses a… Read More

Economic and GHG impacts of a US state-level carbon tax: the case of Hawai’i April 19, 2022 A new paper by a team from UHERO published in Climate Policy finds that a carbon tax for Hawai‘i set at the federal social cost of carbon would reduce cumulative GHG emissions by 10% relative to the baseline from 2025 to 2045. They find that when carbon tax revenues are paid as equal-share dividends to Hawai‘i… Read More

Does air pollution increase electric vehicle adoption? Evidence from U.S. metropolitan areas, 2011–2018 April 15, 2022 A publication in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy by a team of economists including UHERO’s Coffman, Hayashida, and La Croix shows that changes in local air pollution within U.S. metropolitan areas are associated with changes in consumer purchases of new EVs. The authors find a positive association between PM2.5 pollution and BEV adoption, and a negative… Read More

Is a Carbon Tax Viable for a Small Island Economy? June 17, 2021 By Maja Schjervheim, Paul Bernstein, Sumner La Croix, Makena Coffman, and Sherilyn Hayashida For the third year in a row, a carbon tax bill fizzled out at the Hawaiʻi State Legislature. Perhaps it was the difficult timing of introducing a new tax in the wake of a pandemic. Perhaps it was due to qualms regarding… Read More

EV driver characteristics: Evidence from Hawaii March 1, 2020 Electric vehicles (EVs) offer an opportunity to dramatically decrease greenhouse gas emissions within the transport sector if fueled by renewable energy. Hawaii had been early-on considered an ideal place to launch new EVs because of the limited driving range of its island geography. Though it ranks second in new EV registrations per capita in the… Read More

Economic Impact of the Natural Energy Laboratory Hawaii Authority Tenant on the State of Hawaii in 2018 October 16, 2019 NELHA contracted the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization (UHERO) to estimate its economic impact on the State of Hawaii. To estimate expenditures made by NELHA tenants in 2018, UHERO researchers developed a survey where expenditures were broken down into 17 named categories and respondents were asked to provide total expenditures in 2018 and the… Read More

Integrating Renewable Energy with Time Varying Pricing August 13, 2018 With increasing adoption of intermittent sources of renewable energy, effective integration is paramount to fully realizing societal benefits. This study asks the question, how valuable is residential real-time pricing (RTP) in comparison to time-of-use (TOU) rates to absorb increasing sources of intermittent renewable energy? We couple a detailed power sector model with a residential electricity… Read More

Integrating Renewable Energy: A Commercial Sector Perspective on Price-Responsive Load-Shifting July 23, 2018 Price-based demand response is an important component to achieving Hawaii's 100% Renewable Portfolio Standard. This report provides a review of the impacts of time varying pricing programs for the commercial and industrial sectors. It presents commercial sector load patterns and rates for Oahu to gain insight into the potential impacts by sector of implementing time… Read More

Do electric vehicle incentives matter? Evidence from the 50 U.S. states June 7, 2018 UHERO congratulates Sherilyn Wee, Makena Coffman, and Sumner La Croix on the publication of, "Do electric vehicle incentives matter? Evidence from the 50 U.S. states," in Research Policy. This research measures the effectiveness of state-level policies on the adoption of electric vehicles in the United States. Read more about this in The Role of Policy… Read More

Who are Driving Electric Vehicles? An analysis of factors that affect EV adoption in Hawaii May 30, 2018 This study uses data on EV registrations by zipcode in Hawaii to analyze a variety of demographic and transportation factors that might affect EV adoption. After controlling for population and gasoline prices, zip codes with higher income and educational attainment are associated with higher levels of EV adoption. Longer commute times also influence EV adoption… Read More

Determinants of Residential Solar Photovoltaic Adoption February 7, 2018 Hawaii is a leader in distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. It has the highest rate of PV-based electricity penetration in the U.S. and rivals global front runners. The policy impetus towards large-scale adoption of renewable energy comes from the Renewable Portfolio Standard, with a target of 40% net electricity sales from renewable sources by the… Read More

Bringing together energy and climate change policy December 4, 2017 By Sherilyn Wee We hear a lot about Hawaii’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) which requires 100% of the utilities’ net electricity sales to come from renewable sources by 2045. Subsidies, rapidly declining solar panel costs, and high electricity prices have led to the proliferation of distributed rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV). By the end of 2016,… Read More

The Role of Policy and Peers in EV Adoption June 2, 2017 By Sherilyn Wee, Makena Coffman and Sumner LaCroix Electric vehicles (EVs) can be a cleaner means of transportation compared to cars with traditional gasoline engines. They have the added benefit of being able to provide support to the electric power grid—an increasingly important attribute in states like Hawaii with high levels of intermittent renewable energy.… Read More

Sherilyn Wee recognized as Outstanding Student of the Year by the U.S. Department of Transportation January 17, 2017 Sherilyn Wee at the UTC Awards Banquet January 7 in Washington D.C. with keynote speaker, Dr. Beverly Scott, CEO of Beverly Scott and Associates. UHERO congratulates Sherilyn Wee on receiving an Outstanding Student of the Year award, presented by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Sherilyn was recognized in Washington D.C. for her contribution to… Read More

Estimating the Opportunity for Load-Shifting in Hawaii: An Analysis of Proposed Residential Time-of-Use Rates August 2, 2016 Hawaii’s largest electric utility, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and its subsidiaries recently proposed a Time of Use (TOU) pricing scheme for residential rates. The TOU scheme has three tiers of prices: daytime, on-peak, and nighttime. The proposed rates have the highest cost during the on-peak period from 5pm to 10pm. For Oahu, the lowest cost… Read More