In partnership with the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and General Electric Company, HNEI studied the impacts to the HECO grid of integrating 400 MW of wind power from Molokai and Lanai supplied through an undersea cable combined with 100 MW of wind and 100 MW of solar power located on O‘ahu.  The study showed HECO can reliably integrate this power and supply 25% of O‘ahu’s electricity from these sources if several recommendations for upgrades to the HECO grid and requirements for the wind projects are followed.

The electricity supplied from these sources would reduce Hawai‘i’s fossil fuel consumption by approximately 2.8 million barrels of low sulfur fuel oil and 132,000 tons of coal each year. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) organized a technical review committee of U.S. and world experts in large-scale integration of wind power that met throughout the study to provide technical expertise and review of results.

See the O‘ahu Wind Integration Study for the full report. For further information, please contact Jay Griffin.

The Hawaii Bioenergy Master Plan Project Final Report, prepared by HNEI for the State of Hawaii under contract to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, has been completed. The project was established under Act 253, SLH 2007. The Final Report is available at the project website.