Kauai Scraps Biomass Plant for Solar Farm
Biomass is out, solar is in.
The Kauai utility is planning to use $68 million in funds that had originally been allocated for a biomass plant to build the largest photovoltaic array on the island 鈥 10 megawatts.
And utility officials are making the switch under a tight deadline. Contractors have two weeks to put in bids for the project.
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative needs approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture鈥檚 Rural Utilities Service to reallocate the funds. The biomass technology just wasn鈥檛 progressing fast enough, and the utility has determined that solar energy will be more cost-effective for its ratepayers.
Brad Rockwell, production manger for the utility, said he’s not sure yet whether the transfer will go through. “I鈥檒l tell you in a couple of months,” Rockwell said. “It鈥檚 our first rodeo on this, so we鈥檒l see.鈥
While the utility has identified a location for the project, it鈥檚 not completely locked down, so officials don’t want to reveal it, he said.
Other major solar projects are also in the works on Oahu, in various stages of approval and development. Twenty-megawatt solar farms are being planned for Mililani and Barber鈥檚 Point, and a project proposed by San Diego-based Sempra Generation would dwarf all others with a massive 300 megawatt plant at Pearl Harbor.
The Kauai utility has also been working to develop 27.9 megawatts of hydropower that would account for approximately 20 percent of the island’s electricity needs, but its been a rough road with the community raising an array of concerns ranging from federal regulatory oversight of the projects to issues with water diversion.
Kauai is striving to reach 50 percent renewable energy on its electric grid by 2023, primarily through hydro and solar and, if private industry comes through, biofuels. Wind is out because of concerns that the spinning turbine blades are hazardous to endangered species of birds.
