Hawaii - Harnessing the wind on Kauai

A relatively new kind of farm taking root on Neighbor Islands and around the world could soon become reality on the Garden Isle. From the ground up, Kaua‘i residents in various capacities have pushed over the years for energy independence, learning along the way that windmills could be one way to realize this goal. Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative signed an agreement in 2006 with Kaua‘i Wind Power for a proposed 10- to 12.5-megawatt project that would provide the island’s first significant source of wind energy, according to UPC Hawai‘i Wind Partners Vice President Mike Gresham. “As a community, we have to be concerned of the world’s situation and our vulnerability sitting in the middle of the ocean,” he said.

Although the project is small, Gresham said it would make a significant contribution toward reducing an over-reliance on fossil fuels here. Hanapepe resident Arius Hopman agreed. “I feel it is absolutely essential for Kaua‘i to be looking into renewables and breaking free from its near total dependency on imported energy,” he said. “Wind and solar (water heating) seem the most feasible and immediately do-able.” The proposed Kaua‘i project is in the concept stage, Gresham said, likely two years from reality. Kaua‘i Wind Power has chosen an Eastside site on a Department of Hawaiian Homelands parcel that is on the mauka side of Kuhio Highway near Moloa‘a, he said.

The plan is to install four or five 2.5-megawatt wind turbines, he said, capable of powering some 3,000 homes. The turbines would sit on 80-meter towers with rotors 96 meters in diameter. “If this is successful, it would be very visible to the folks driving back and forth,” Gresham said. “But if it’s anything like the farm on Maui, it becomes a source of pride because it’s renewable energy and it’s something people are very interested in.”

Wind farms on the Big Island and Maui provide more than 40 megawatts of renewable energy, which could more than double if proposed projects go through there. O‘ahu will also join the list if West Wind Works’ proposed 50-megawatt project is brought to fruition, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism Web site. The proposed Kaua‘i project’s wind turbines could annually eliminate the burning of 83,000 equivalent barrels of oil, according to KIUC’s Web site.

Hawai‘i must obtain 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010 and 20 percent by 2020 under Gov. Linda Lingle’s “Energy for Tomorrow” vision. In addition to mandates, state and federal tax credits for renewable energy projects have made wind power competitive in the industry. But some credits will sunset in 2008, Morita said, unless Congress extends them. For units installed and placed in service after July 1, 2006, state tax credits range from 20 percent of the actual cost or $1,500, whichever is less, for a single family residential property to 20 percent of the actual cost; or $500,000, whichever is less, for a commercial property.

This incentive is coupled with the federal Wind Energy Production Tax Credit, enacted in 1992, that provides a credit of 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity produced from a wind farm during the first 10 years of its operation. This credit has only been extended through Dec. 31. More than 90 percent of electricity on Kaua‘i comes from imported oil, according to KIUC’s Web site.