Hawaii weatherization assistance program funding totals 432,103 dollars for 2026 as the state posts the highest electricity price in the country

How to apply for the Hawaii weatherization assistance program

The Hawaii weatherization assistance program pays to seal and insulate a home so it loses less heat and keeps cool air in, cutting what a household spends on electricity. That matters in Hawaii, which pays the highest average electricity price of any state. The program runs on 3 levels, the federal Department of Energy, the Hawaii Office of Community Services as the state agency, and 4 Community Action Agencies that do the work inside a home, one each on Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii Island and Maui. A resident applies through the agency that serves the island where they live, not the state directly. To qualify, household income must fall at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline. Priority goes to households with a member 60 or older, a person with a disability, families with children, high energy users and high energy burden households.

Hawaii 2026 award totals 432,103 dollars across 2 funds

The state of Hawaii is eligible for 357,521 dollars in Weatherization Assistance Program funds for the program year running July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, according to the Hawaii Office of Community Services. A separate Department of Energy fund called the Weatherization Readiness Fund adds another 74,582 dollars for the same program year. Adding the 2 figures by hand reaches 432,103 dollars, the total federal weatherization money Hawaii can draw on this program year. That total is far smaller than the amount at least one mainland state received for the same 2026 program year, showing how small a federal formula award can be for a small state.

The base award has grown across the program years the state reports

The Hawaii Office of Community Services reports its base Weatherization Assistance Program award, not counting the Readiness Fund, for 3 program years. It was 302,402 dollars in program year 2020, when 48 dwelling units were weatherized, 280,638 dollars in program year 2021, and 357,521 dollars in program year 2026. Measured from program year 2021, the base award rose about 27.4%. Measured from program year 2020, it rose about 18.2%. The office states no figure for program years 2022 through 2025, so the size of the award in those 4 years is not known from this source.

Hawaii pays the highest electricity price in the country

Hawaii average retail price of electricity was 38.00 cents per kilowatt hour in 2024, the highest of any state, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. The same agency counts the average United States price at 12.94 cents per kilowatt hour for the same year. Comparing the 2 figures shows Hawaii pays about 2.9 times the national average for the same amount of electricity, a comparison this site performed since the agency states each price separately but not the ratio between them. That gap is why the same weatherization retrofit saves a Hawaii household more per kilowatt hour cut than it saves almost anywhere else in the country.

What weatherization saves nationally

Nationally, the Weatherization Assistance Program has helped more than 7.2 million families since it began in 1976, and now weatherizes roughly 32,000 homes a year while supporting about 8,500 jobs, according to the United States Department of Energy. Its own average savings figure is 372 dollars or more a year for a household that gets the work done. No source behind this story states a savings figure specific to Hawaii, so that national average is the nearest sourced comparison, not a promise for Hawaii itself.