KEKAHA — Should a hurricane knock out the power generated by Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative on the Westside, Pacific Light & Power’s proposed concentrated solar thermal facility to be located between Kekaha and Waimea would be able to provide some
KEKAHA — Should a hurricane knock out the power generated by Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative on the Westside, Pacific Light & Power’s proposed concentrated solar thermal facility to be located between Kekaha and Waimea would be able to provide some 8,000 single-family homes on the sunny side of the island with their daytime electrical needs.
“In the case of emergency, our solar plant would power the Westside,” said the company’s CEO, Dick Roth.
Normally, the solar farm would generate power through KIUC’s transmission grid’s high power lines, which would then be transmitted to the distribution grid through wires bringing electricity into people’s homes, he said.
“If negotiations go as planned, the project will be connected to KIUC’s transmission systems that supply the entire island,” said KIUC spokesperson Anne Barnes.
The plant would be able to generate roughly 6 percent of the island’s annual electrical needs, she said.
But if there is a break between PL&P’s plant and KIUC’s Port Allen facility, only a small on-site generator would be needed to kick the solar farm into gear, directly supplying electricity to homes in the neighborhood.
Roth answered several questions Friday that community members have put forth since his company announced last month that it had signed a long-term lease for a 10-megawatt concentrated solar thermal power plant on some 100 acres of sub-par farmland.
“They listened well and are really interested in benefiting the community,” said Kekaha resident and community activist Bruce Pleas, regarding the small team which comprises the local renewable energy company.
They are not like the usual developers who come in with their plans already in place, he said. PL&P reached out to the community and took what residents had to say seriously.
PL&P even made sure to connect with those who would be living right next door to the industrial-sized facility.
“People came back pretty positive,” Pleas said.
People will be able to see the multiple rows of mirrored troughs collecting sunshine in the beginning, “but as years go on, even people with two-story houses” will not be able to see anything after the expected landscaping grows in, he said.
“This has been everybody’s concern and has been ours as well,” Roth said. But, to mitigate the situation plans are already underway to grow native vegetation to not only shield the mirrored troughs, but to help provide a habitat for endemic Hawai‘i birds.
“The landscaping will take some time to grow in,” Roth said, adding they will start planting as early as possible.
There is a technologically similar solar project on the Big Island, but on a much smaller scale, Roth said when asked if this project was the first of its kind to hit the Hawaiian Islands.
The 8-foot tall troughs at the Big Island facility collect the sun’s energy with aluminum rather than mirrors, he added.
“They use a different technology to make electricity,” he said. “And it’s not a very efficient process.”
PL&P’s facility would consist of multiple rows of mirrors — reaching a peak height of 18 feet only at dawn and dusk — which would capture the sun’s heat, warming a fluid located in tubes which run above the solar collectors.
This 750 degree heated fluid would be moved to a heat exchanger that boils water under pressure, generating steam which drives the turbine, thereby creating electricity for the local grid.
Although the plant is capable of storing three hours of energy and would be located on the sunny side of the island, lingering clouds would still have an impact — just not as much for a thermal facility as a photovoltaic one.
“Photovoltaic generation output can fluctuate by 80 percent due to clouds, making the resource difficult for the utility to utilize on a large scale,” Barnes said in an e-mail. “The thermal storage will allow the concentrated solar panel project to deliver power at a steady output when available.”
Storage requirements before exporting power to the grid will be established in the purchase power agreement which is reportedly in the process of completion, Barnes said.
When it’s stormy for two weeks, “we won’t be making power,” Roth said.
The idea, however, is to eventually have enough storage to supply power into the evening hours, especially during peak load — around 7 and 8 p.m., he said.
“I want the power rate to go down as well; it’s very high,” Roth said in explaining why he decided to get involved with the renewable energy project.
By the end of 2011, when the facility is projected to come online, “my guess is they will have an immediate” impact on rates, especially if oil prices continue to rise, he said.
“If oil prices increase, renewable projects will provide a hedge to stabilize price volatility and escalation, and would lower our members’ bills,” Barnes said.
KIUC has been very receptive to the project, although when first approached about two years they were “getting many proposals” at the time, Roth said.
“Everybody thought they could come to Kaua‘i and make a quick buck,” he said, citing rising oil prices as the primary motivating factor.
“KIUC was doing their best to filter as much as they could,” he said. “Our project wasn’t up to standard and KIUC let us know we needed to do a lot more work.”
The co-op knows what they are doing; they’ve definitely done their homework, Roth said.
“They’re very willing to move forward quickly on several fronts,” he said, adding that the co-op is “not interested in spending money on something which would not come to fruition.”
One of the most difficult hurdles to jump thus far has been acquisition of land. Roth said it was challenging to find a property owner willing to engage in a project like that and put up their land for 20 years.
Now that a lease has been signed, the engineering process and environmental work have already begun with construction proposed to be not far behind by the end of the year.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
