Hawaii is Baking Up a lot of Wind and Sun

A green lab, say some

Bill Opalka | Jan 23, 2012

If you wanted to create a laboratory for clean energy, you might pick these attributes: an isolated market; one that’s almost wholly dependent on fossil fuels; and it has abundant wind and sun. One such lab already exists. It’s called Hawaii.

The archipelago is dependent on power generated by diesel fueled power plants  supplied by the mainland, and now has embarked on an aggressive campaign to produce its own energy, using wind and solar, with a little geothermal and biomass kicked in. And it has the most ambitious renewable portfolio standard, long-term, that even tops California’s.

There is some urgency in getting more home-grown energy onto the grid, with costs mostly north of 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, and susceptible to spikes in oil prices. Hawaii has set in law the most aggressive clean energy goals in the nation: 70 percent clean energy for surface transportation and electricity by 2030.

Energy Central recently spoke to Scott Seu, Vice President of Energy Resources for Hawaiian Electric Company,about their ongoing efforts.

Currently at 9 percent, the next milestone is for 15 percent by 2015.

“We expect that we're going to be on track for 2015 and 2020, when we’re to be at 25 percent renewables, and in 2030 we need to get 40 percent, so we feel pretty confident,” he said.

“Our rooftop solar program has exploded in the last couple years,” Seu said.
A recent Public Utilities Commission decision for a solar feed-in tariff was approved, a decision HECO has been waiting for that gives an incentive for large-scale projects.

The islands offer another unique set of challenges not experienced on the mainland. Add a 30-megawatt wind project to any other state and it’s a blip in the generation portfolio of a system. In Maui, with a baseload of about 200 megawatts, adding 30 megawatts becomes a major generator.

“When there is a small overall electric system, the impact of a renewables project could have even more of an effect. It almost becomes a micro grid,” he added.

Oahu, the largest demand in the system, has a power demand of about 2,000 megawatts. A federal study earlier this year contemplated scenarios for a successful integration of 500 megawatts of wind through a combination of sites on the island and connections with wind facilities on other islands.

Hawaii currently has 93 megawatts of wind and HECO just recently signed a power purchase agreement with First Wind for another 69-megawatt project on Oahu.
Other highlights include of renewables on the islands include:

•    Hawaiian Electric’s new, biodiesel-powered generating station at Campbell Industrial Park on Oahu is the first utility-scale combustion turbine run entirely on biodiesel.
•    Hawaiian Electric is fast-tracking the adoption of electric vehicles in Hawaii, by discounting rates and integrating photovoltaic panels, a battery storage system and an electric vehicle charger, which allows customers to renewably charge vehicles 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
•    Hawaiian Electric is expanding its use of geothermal power to 38 MW and is exploring ways to further increase the use of geothermal power.
•    Hawaiian Electric spearheaded a solar water-heating program decades ago, and now one in four Hawaii rooftops have solar panels. The company also ranks third in the nation in adding solar photovoltaic watts per customer.
•    Hawaiian Electric is developing three major smart grid research projects on Maui, to improve outage detection, make possible pricing programs that can help customers save money, and test ways to reliably integrate variable renewable energy into an energy grid.

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