AES Hawai‘i is launching the West Oahu solar-plus-storage project in Kapolei, which will produce enough energy to reduce Oahu’s use of fossil fuels by 750,000 barrels of oil and the associated pollution and greenhouse gases emitted over its lifetime.
The Fortune 500 global energy company held a blessing Tuesday at the project site, which is located on 66 acres of open University of Hawaii land. It’s AES’ first facility to combine solar generation and battery energy storage on Oahu, but it’s one of 12 AES Hawai‘i renewable projects in progress throughout the state.
Gov. Josh Green, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, and University of Hawaii-West Oahu Chancellor Maenette K. P. Ah Nee-Benham were at the commissioning of Oahu’s newest utility-scale solar project, which is already generating 12.5 megawatts of clean energy for Oahu’s power grid, supported by a 50-megawatt-hour battery energy storage system, under a 25-year power purchase agreement with Hawaiian Electric at a cost of 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Altogether, AES Hawai‘i said its “projects currently in operation or under development will collectively provide nearly 400 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power 160,000 homes statewide, while eliminating more than 470,000 metric tons of carbon emissions and more than 30 million barrels of oil consumption over the course of their life cycles.”
It’s part of a dramatic shift for AES, which was founded in 1981 and built a significant number of coal facilities through 2016, when it made the decision to stop, Bernerd Da Santos, executive vice president and president of global renewables for AES Corp., told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Da Santos said about two-thirds of AES’ business was coal in 2016, and the percentage of coal is now shy of 20%.
“We are aiming to have no coal by the end of 2025,” he said, adding that to get to that aggressive goal, AES is decommissioning 14,000 megawatts of coal and commissioning 15,000 megawatts of renewable energy between wind, solar and energy storage.
He said AES’ first solar and storage project on Oahu alone will provide a multitude of benefits that extends far beyond the low-cost, clean energy that it generates.
“We are partnering with a premier educational institution in the University of Hawaii-West Oahu, helping to reduce Hawaii’s dependence on imported oil and utilizing the land to support the island’s agricultural needs,” Da Santos said.
AES Hawai‘i President Sandra Larsen said the project’s construction supported more than 120 jobs for local workers over a two-year period. Larsen added that the project is a dual-use farm with bee hives and sheep to help support the island’s agricultural and food production needs.
AES also is dismantling its idle 180-megawatt coal plant, which had been Oahu’s largest single generator of electricity for 30 years, producing cheap but dirty power, through August 2022. Da Santos said AES has dismantled about 23% of the plant and expects to complete the process by the end of this year or early next year. He said the plan is to eventually reuse the 8.5-acre property in Kapolei for renewable-energy purposes.
The closure of the AES’ Hawaii coal plant dovetailed with the end of a 30-year power purchase contract with Hawaiian Electric that was not renewed, given the state’s goal to derive all energy from renewable sources by 2045.
Blangiardi said, “We’re here today really to salute AES, who was involved in shutting down the coal plant. This is a major statement on an ongoing basis toward clean energy. They are powering past coal. What does that look like? How does it manifest? You see it today on a solar farm with this kind of magnitude. This is a transformative project, this is an iconic project.”
Blangiardi said the project strengthens Oahu’s grid, while helping to reduce the island’s reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity. The more renewable projects on Oahu, the more residents will benefit, he said.
“It makes your life better, I hope, for the fact that as we get further and further into clean-energy initiatives, the cost of energy will come down,” Blangiardi said. “To see a farm with this kind of depth and breadth to it, and all the engineering and the latest in technology — it can only benefit the people who live here, especially knowing full well that as we stand here in the sunshine that we have that blessing each and every day. We are fortunate that we have such great sun power here, and this is a chance to take advantage of it.”
Storage projects allow utility operator Hawaiian Electric to accept and use more intermittent power generation from renewable sources, including rooftop solar, in its long-term transition away from fossil fuel power plants and toward 100% renewable energy.
Rebecca Dayhuff Matsushima, Hawaiian Electric vice president of resource procurement, said in a statement that the project is a positive step in the state’s efforts to meet renewable energy goals.
“Our growing portfolio of renewable power and energy storage resources work together to provide reliability and energy security on our isolated island grid,” Matsushima said.
Green said that the project “touched a milestone” for the Hawaii‘i Clean Energy Initiative, which was launched in 2008 and is underway to make the islands petroleum-independent by 2045. It also reduces costs for consumers and helps future generations by combating the effects of climate change.
“This is the third utility-scale solar farm and it’s just gigantic. You can see what its scope is, and there are seven additional projects that are expected to be online on Oahu by 2027. The scope of this project and having many more is where we need to be as we move forward towards our 2045 goals.”
Green said AES’ West Oahu solar-plus-storage project will save “almost $250,000 per month, $3 million a year, and imagine what happens when you have seven projects.”
He added that the value of such solar projects was made clear by living on the Big Island, where energy users paid sometimes 30 to 40 cents or more per kilowatt-hour.
“That’s the kind of price that drives people that we love sometimes away from our rural communities,” Green said. “It makes it very, very difficult.”
But more importantly, Green said the project “reduces our oil consumption. Petroleum is a problem for us. It’s a problem for our planet. It’s one of many reasons why we faced what we did on Maui.”
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Star-Advertiser staff writer Andrew Gomes contributed to this report.
