Hawaii's Kauai island to hit 80% Renewable Power by mid-2020s

This is a very exciting prospect for the island of Kauai as they expect to chart their path to 100% renewable electricity by mid century. With Hawaii's RE policy which encourage healty growth of renewables, Kauai's 80% clean energy ambition would not be difficult to achieve. 

The said project in Kauai is solar-charged water pumping system. This is how it is -- the island is almost entirely powered from RE at midday, and with some battery installed, part of the solar generated energy is stored in the battery bank. As the bank is fully stored, there is excess power that is suitable for pumping water to the reservoir which would then generate hydropower during the peak hours in the evening.

Beauty of Kauai.

View of Hanalei bay and Na Pali range. Photo credit: Steve Heap posted on Matador Network.

"It got to the point where we just didn’t have any more room in our daytime demand to take more solar." - Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, Brad Rockwell

Read more at GTM, link provided below. 

Source: greentechmedia

Hawaii power companies to deactivate oil plants, ramp up Renewables by 2016

After a year of research and deliberation, three major Hawaiian power companies are now putting up plan to deactivate a total of 226 MW of oil-fired generating units, convert remaining baseload plants to cycling duty, and substantially ramp up use of renewables by 2016.

Indeed a great move by the utility companies.

Renewable energy projects in Oahu, Hawaii. Image credit: UCS-USA

The Hawaiian Electric Companies serve 95% of the state's 1.2 million residents and in the next 5 years plan the followings:

• To deactivate the Honolulu Power Plant and two of four units at Maui’s Kahului Power Plant by 2014, 
• To deactivate two units at Oahu’s Waiau Power Plant by 2016,
• Also includes Hawaii Island’s Shipman plant, which has already been deactivated and will be retired in 2014,
• To fully retire all units at Kahului Power Plant by 2019. The oil-fired units make up 14% of the utility's owned generation.

Focus on renewable energies

The companies will instead accelerate development of utility-scale renewable energy projects, including solar and wind. Plans include:

• Increasing the capability of utility grids to accept additional customer-sited renewable generation, especially roof-top photovoltaic systems, 
• Developing smart grids for all three companies,
• Installing smart meters for all customers in 2017–2018, 
• Automating grids, and developing utility energy storage systems.

Hawaii's renewable portfolio standard requires that the companies meet 15% of net electricity sales with renewable power by 2015, 25% by 2020, and 40% by 2030.

The three companies met a record of 13.9% of generation with renewables in 2012 i.e., installing 111 MW of nameplate utility-scale wind that year. By the end of this year, the companies expect to meet 18% of generation with renewables.

Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) also plans to convert or replace generating units, which have not been deactivated, to use “cost-effective, cleaner fuels,” including renewable biomass or biofuel and liquefied natural gas.


Source: Power Magazine

Hawaii Clean Energy

Hawaii is one of the world's premier travel destinations. However, if visitors look beyond the views of Diamond Head, Waikiki Beach, palm trees and the blue Pacific, they'll see a renewable energy transformation under way that could be a model for others around the world, RenewableEnergyWorld.com reported last week.

Kahuku wind farm. Image by- npr.org

90% of Hawaii's energy for transportation and electricity comes from fossil fuel, making it the highest in the US. This cannot go on forever with the depleting oil reserve and the ever increasing cost of obtaining such energy source.

Caring for nature and concern for emission of carbon, Hawaii took several measures in adopting green energy source such as using biofuels to generate power, encouraging the use of electric vehicles, drilling for more geothermal energy, and integrating more solar and wind power. Latest in its list of initiatives is the testing of the smart-grid by Hawaiian Electric Company, HECO together with its subsidiaries.

In 2010, the Solar Electric Power Association ranked HECO third in the United States for growth in solar power. According to RenewableEnergyWorld, Hawaii has more solar watts per customer than all but a few U.S. states.

Wind farms provide power on our three largest islands and additional projects are in the pipeline.According to Clean Technica, Hawaii is currently developing its 69MW Kawailoa wind power project, dubbed the largest in the tourist island on Oahu’s North Shore. The wind power installations consists of 30 nos of 2.3MW Siemens wind turbines, enough to power approximately 14,500 homes on Oahu Island. This makes about 5% of the island’s total power demand.

Another renewable energy source - geothermal energy - provides about 17% of the electricity on Hawaii island. Collaboration between authority and the local communities, and renewable energy developers also helps in shaping the future of the island's geothermal development.

Go green

Common sense tells us that if clean energy technology can be made to work on the small independent grids in Hawaii, it can work anywhere. Solutions developed and tested in Hawaii is said to feature the most advanced technology. It will be constructed in ways that are environmentally friendly.

Hawaii encourages the use of Electric Vehicle developing 'discounted overnight charging rates', and the government is working with electric vehicle manufacturers and service equipment suppliers to ease broader adoption of such vehicles there.

Let's hope that Malaysia could make similar effort to encourage the use of more electric vehicles, such as lowering the cost or owning the New Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight.