Another utility-scale solar farm has been approved as an interim use on part of an Oahu master-planned residential community where development has been stalled for decades.

A development partnership received approval Nov. 21 from the state Land Use Commission to establish a 20-megawatt photovoltaic energy plant on 161 acres within the 2,000-home second phase of Royal Kunia in Central Oahu.

The approval via a 7-0 vote by commission members follows a similar decision last month by the LUC for a 115-megawatt solar farm on part of a site long slated to become a community with up to 7,900 homes called Waiawa Ridge between Pearl City and Waipio.

The Waiawa Ridge solar farm proposed by landowner Kamehameha Schools and renewable energy developer SunEdison Inc. wasn’t controversial and passed with a 7-0 LUC vote.

The Royal Kunia solar plan, however, involved one sticky issue over whether the project should proceed before responsible landowners in Royal Kunia’s second phase fulfill a requirement to provide infrastructure to a state agriculture park planned on adjacent land. The infrastructure was a condition for allowing urban development on the Royal Kunia site previously used for farming.

The state Office of Planning raised the issue and proposed that construction of the infrastructure, including roads and waterlines up to the 150-acre ag park, be started before construction of the solar farm.

Providing the infrastructure in the near future was made a condition of the solar project approval, though the exact wording of the condition will be hammered out in an upcoming written order from the LUC.

Delivering infrastructure was supposed to have been done in 2000. A deadline was later extended to 2011, but the project remained hung up largely because of financial troubles of Royal Kunia’s original developer, Halekua Development Corp.

Halekua’s troubles, which included a bankruptcy reorganization in 2007, led to selling pieces of the community’s roughly 500-acre second phase to several companies. As a result, satisfying the infrastructure delivery requirement became a responsibility shared by different parties.

Ho’ohana Solar I LLC, a partnership between an affiliate of real estate development firm Forest City Enterprises and renewable-energy firm Hanwha Q Cells USA, proposed the solar farm. It will occupy 161 acres adjacent to the state ag park site and owned by an affiliate of the Mark A. Robinson Trust, which once owned all the land under Royal Kunia.

Canpartners IV Royal Kunia Property LLC, a partnership led by California-based Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, acquired a different 161-acre parcel approved for roughly 900 to 1,000 homes.

Affiliates of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation own a 123-acre site slated for an industrial park and 50 acres approved for an estimated 400 or 500 homes.

The site proposed for the solar farm originally was going to be a golf course but later was approved by the LUC for 581 homes under a revised plan to spread out the density of the community.

The solar farm site is still zoned for agriculture, though renewable-energy production is an allowed use under the city’s zoning code.

Ho’ohana said in a filing with the LUC that its proposed farm doesn’t represent a change in the development of Royal Kunia because it is a temporary use while other landowners build homes on their parcels that will bring infrastructure up toward the Robinson land.

Canpartners estimated it will take 15 years or more to build the 1,400 homes below the Robinson land in two increments, according to the Ho’ohana filing.

"Because increment one is not yet complete and increment two is estimated to take some 15 or more years to complete, Ho’ohana believes that the proposed interim use of (the Robinson land) is the best use of the property until such a time that increments one and two are fully developed," the filing said. "This interim use … would be a low-impact, environmentally friendly use that benefits utility customers island wide."

The solar firm received permission to operate the energy farm for 30 years, after which it would be removed.

Blue Planet Foundation, a nonprofit promoter of clean renewable energy, said the Ho’ohana project is a welcome piece of helping move the state away from its high fossil fuel dependence.

"In the past decade, Hawaii has sent more than $40 billion out of the state to pay for imported fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas," Richard Wallsgrove, Blue Planet program director, said in a letter to the LUC.

Blue Planet said hundreds of additional megawatts from photovoltaic panels are needed on Oahu.

A 20-megawatt solar farm has the capacity to generate about 2 percent of Oahu’s power, or enough for 7,000 homes annually, and replace the importation and burning of about 4.7 million gallons of oil over the project’s life span, Ho’ohana said. The company added that such a reduction of fossil fuel generation will prevent 46,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere — roughly the amount produced by 8,100 cars over 30 years.

Ho’ohana is committed to selling electricity to Hawaiian Electric Co. for about 16 cents a kilowatt-hour, or 20 percent less than recent costs. HECO approved Ho’ohana as a power generator as part of a group of projects approved by the Public Utilities Commission in August.

Ho’ohana anticipates being able to start construction in mid-2015 and begin operating in early or mid-2016.

The company noted that it would violate its contract with HECO if it doesn’t start delivering electricity by June 15, 2016. If production were delayed beyond the end of 2016, the company would miss out on a federal tax credit, likely resulting in the project’s cancellation, Ho’ohana said.