Solar power in Hawaii
Hawaii's imported energy costs are three times higher, and will soon be close to four times higher[1] than the mainland, so Hawaii has motivation to become one of the highest users of solar energy. Its tropical location provides lots of sun energy that stands to be utilized more effectively in the future. Recently, the Oahu Wind Integration Study recently released a report detailing the impact on the Oahu grid and found that 500 MW of wind and 100 MW of solar power could provide Oahu up to 25% of its electricity while eliminating the need to burn approximately 2.8 million barrels of low sulfur fuel oil and 132,000 tons of coal each year.[2]
Solar power energy statistics
In 2007 Hawaii generated 8 GWh of energy by photovoltaics. The distribution of energy produced per island is as follows in the table below:
[3] This, however, is only 0.07% of the state's total energy production for 2007.
Major solar installations in Hawaii
- December 2008: DuPont completed a solar power installation on Kauai that is expected to average 80 kW.[4]
- December 2008: Sunetric completed the largest roof-mount solar power installation in Hawaii at Kona Commons shopping mall.[5]
- 2009: Sopogy completed construction on the World's first MicroCSP solar thermal power project and Hawaii's first Concentrating Solar Power Project. The project located at the Natural Energy Laboratories of Hawaii is a 2MW solar thermal project interconnected into the Hawaiian Electric Industries grid under a Power Purchase Agreement.
- 2009: La Ola Solar Farm on Lanai was dedicated in January, with a design capacity of 1.2MW. After operating at 600KW due to variable cloud cover, in September 2010 Xtreme Power announced plans to incorporate their battery storage technology to bring the system up to design capacity.[6]
List of solar energy companies in Hawaii
Notes
- ^ PUC issues interim decision in Hawaiian Electric rate case
- ^ Hawaii Study: Wind and Solar Can Reliably Supply 25% of Oahu Electricity Needs
- ^ The State of Hawaii Data Book 2008, [1], page 761
- ^ Environmental Leader news: DuPont cuts ribbon on Hawaii solar panel project
- ^ Star Bulletin: Kona Commons gets solar system
- ^ "Castle & Cooke's Lanai solar farm getting battery boost". 14 September 2010. http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2010/09/13/daily11.html.
External links
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