New Project Seeks To Build Offshore Wind Farms Near Kaiwi Channel
The project could help the state reach its renewable energy goals, sourcing power to approximately 300,000 homes — but at what cost?
Windmills have long been a source of controversy for Hawaii residents. Now, they could be in our oceans.
Aukahi Energy, a partnership between Progression Energy and EDF Renewables North America, is seeking approval to build floating offshore windmills north of the Kaiwi Channel, near Makapuu Point. If approved, the project will produce enough clean electricity to power around 300,000 homes, according to the company.
If all goes according to plan, the windmills would be up and running by 2035, according to vice president Noelani Kalipi. In the meantime, she said that the company will be running a wide range of studies, examining everything from the project’s impact on marine mammals and fishing to its cultural implications.
“We’re not asking anybody to support us in this project,” she said at a Waimanalo neighborhood board meeting earlier this month. “It’s too early for a yes or no on offshore wind. What we are looking for is for people to work with us to identify all of the concerns, all of the questions, so that we can really study that.”
Some community members already are expressing concern about the project’s potential effects on wildlife, cultural practices and the environment, highlighting the complexity of offshore wind farms and the long road to a sustainable Hawaii.
Aukahi Energy’s objective is to help Hawaii reach its renewable energy goals, said Donalyn Dela Cruz, the company’s head of communications. In recent years, the state has been ramping up its efforts to shift toward a more sustainable environment, aiming to have a 100% renewable energy-powered electric grid by 2045.
The company describes floating offshore wind energy as a way to reduce the state’s reliance on imported fossil fuels and to create new jobs, while maintaining a minimal land footprint.
Henry Curtis, executive director of , said the ocean-based nature of such a project will ensure that the windmills are “a lot less intrusive” than the Kahuku wind farm, which has faced backlash for years.
He also said that offshore wind farms can help combat issues regarding Oahu’s limited space.
“It would decrease the pressure of using Oahu land, which is being competed with solar and wind and agriculture and affordable housing and so many other things,” Curtis said. “It would be a way of diversifying the energy sources.”
Kalipi also brought up access to land, which Aukahi Energy’s offshore windmills would not have to compete over in the same way that solar and onshore wind farms do. For her, this competition is one of several factors holding the state back from its renewable energy goals. Another is a lack of trust for these kinds of projects.
“The easy projects are done,” she said at the board meeting. “Now, any project that’s done is going to create a change for people, and so there’s a lot of lack of trust, negative experience and lack of inclusive processes to co-create actions.”
Aukahi Energy is seeking to overcome this by prioritizing community engagement, Kalipi said. The company is visiting neighborhood boards around the island, including Waimanalo’s, to share its plans and to generate feedback, she said.
A “Huge Ecological Flag”
It’s safe to say that feedback has been generated.
“Alternative energy is vastly important, but the Kaiwi Channel, with our whales and sea birds, I just don’t understand that,” board member Elizabeth Reilly said at a Hawaii Kai neighborhood board meeting on Tuesday.
Maxx Phillips, Hawaii director and staff attorney at the , shares this concern. In addition to its marine mammals and fish, she said that the Kaiwi Channel is well-known for its migratory birds, many of which are threatened or endangered.
The birds are protected under the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act, but Phillips said offshore wind farms could result in harm that is difficult to document.
She also described the project’s siting — somewhere between the islands of Oahu and Molokai — as a “huge ecological flag.”
“While the project proponents are claiming that this is an Oahu project, it is closer to Molokai than it is to Oahu,” she said. “So already you have an environmental issue, right? Why should Molokai be giving up their near shore waters to feed the insatiable appetite of Oahu and its military and tourist economies?”
Along with potentially hurting Hawaii’s environment, as well as its fishing, paddling and ocean sports communities, Phillips said the project could fill developers’ pockets at the expense of residents.
Pointing to previous wind energy projects, Phillips said developers often fall through on their promises to lower energy costs or to create local job opportunities, instead opting to hire project personnel from out-of-state.
Project Faces Numerous Hurdles Moving Forward
Aukahi Energy is not the only offshore wind energy project to be proposed in Hawaii. Curtis said that there have been similar proposals for windmills off Kalaeloa, Waikiki and Waimanalo. Two of these proposals were rejected by the military, which has sites in the proposed areas.
Some of the proposals faced opposition because of their proximity to the land, something that attempted to control in 2022. The bill, which would have required offshore windmills to be located a minimum number of miles from the shore, passed the Senate but was ultimately deferred.
None of Hawaii’s previous offshore wind energy projects have come to fruition, something that Wayne Tanaka, director of the, said reflects their complicated nature.
“The proposal development and planning and everything burns so slowly,” he said. “I’ve been hearing things for over a decade, and it still seems like some of these projects are fairly far off.”
Kalipi says that Aukahi Energy has far to go before construction. The company will first have to compete for an opportunity to sell power to Hawaiian Electric, and then for a lease sale with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, followed by years of permitting processes.
“This project is very early stage,” she said. “Nothing is set yet.”
Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change is supported by The Healy Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
