Hawaii Proving Good Test Case for Conversion to Renewable Energy

September 15, 2015 – What better place could you find than Hawaii to test and debug continuous 24-hour renewable energy systems. Blessed with sunshine, wind, tides and wave energy the state is a perfect laboratory to create an energy infrastructure free from fossil fuels.

The latest project on the Island of Kauai involves a 20-year contract between SolarCity and the island’s utility cooperative. SolarCity is to install a 52 Megawatt hour grid-connected battery storage system that will supply up to 13 Megawatts of supplemental energy during peak requirements between the hours of 5 and 10 p.m. each day. Electricity will be supplied at a lower cost than energy currently produced through fossil fuel sources.

Kauai is playing catchup with the other islands as you can see from the map below. The investment in Solar City should push them over the 20% renewable mark once the system goes online.

Hawaii is getting very aggressive about renewable energy. This summer the state passed legislation to mandate a 100% move to renewable energy by mid-century. Currently at 20% its next milestone target is 30% by 2020, then 70% by 2040 and 100% by no later than 2045. That will make Hawaii the first American state to rid itself of carbon energy dependence.

According to the Blue Planet Foundation which issues an annual Energy Report Card for the state, Hawaii currently gets a B- based on five metrics: transportation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart grids and economics. In renewables the state gets an A-. But transportation is a D- and smart grid a D. energy efficiency was rated B+.

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