Kekaha nonprofit gets state funds for rooftop solar at enterprise center

A Kekaha community hub that has long hosted training, meetings and economic-development work is getting a $150,000 rooftop solar system, a project that could help ease operating costs at the West Kaua‘i Enterprise Center and strengthen a facility central to West Kauai homestead life.

Homestead Community Development Corporation secured the money through the Hawaii Legislature’s Grants-in-Aid program to purchase and install a photovoltaic system at the HCDC-owned and operated center. The funding was folded into Hawaii’s fiscal year 2027 state budget package and had been sent to the governor for consideration, part of a larger set of appropriations Kauai legislative leaders described as aimed at infrastructure, environmental issues and community grants.

The payoff for Kekaha is less about the grant announcement itself than the building it supports. Garrett Danner, HCDC’s deputy director, called the Enterprise Center a longtime catalyst for growth, collaboration and problem-solving in the community. That is the same building that earlier was envisioned as the only public facility inside any homestead area on Kauai’s west side, a place for entrepreneurship training, small-business lending workshops, financial education and foreclosure-prevention services for residents of Kekaha, Waimea and Hanapēpē.

The center sits on three acres of trust land in Kekaha under a 30-year license issued by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in 2013. HCDC’s more recent materials describe the property as a 3-acre parcel with a 1,200-square-foot facility used for meetings, events, gatherings and economic opportunities. In practical terms, rooftop solar should help reduce the electricity burden on a site that serves as a shared space for homestead programming and community use, leaving more room for the center to focus on service rather than utility costs.

HCDC was founded in 2009 by Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations leaders and says its mission is to develop affordable housing and economic opportunities on or near Native Hawaiian trust lands. Its economic-development work now includes an open marketplace, youth center, campground, thrift shop, café, a 55-acre solar farm and the Enterprise Center itself. The nonprofit says it has completed capital-improvement projects and assets totaling $12.7 million, with another $15.8 million in the development pipeline.

The solar project also fits a wider pattern in Kekaha, where more than $2 million from a landfill-host community benefits fund has already flowed into the area, including money for solar projects and youth sports. In that context, the Enterprise Center’s new rooftop array is another investment in a west side community that has pushed to turn local land-use and state funding decisions into durable infrastructure, stronger services and a more resilient homestead base.