Kauai Solar Farm in 2011

SUBHEAD: It’s official. Farming sunshine into electricity will become a reality for the island’s Westside.

By Coco Zickos on 31 January 2010 in The Garcen Island -  
(http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/article_5244d8a4-0e39-11df-866d-001cc4c002e0.html)

  
Image above: Rendering of how the Westside solar farm facility would look from Kaumualii Highway before landscaping grows in and shields it from view. Multiple rows of 18-foot tall mirrors capture the sun’s heat, warming a fluid located in tubes which run above the solar collecting troughs.  

It’s official. Farming sunshine into electricity will become a reality for the island’s Westside.
Pacific Light & Power put pen to paper Thursday, signing a lease to construct a 10-megawatt concentrated solar thermal power plant on some 100 acres of “sub-optimal” farmland between Waimea and Kekaha, CEO Dick Roth announced at the most recent Apollo Kaua‘i meeting.
The first of its kind in the Pacific Region, efforts to bring the Anahola-based company to fruition have been ongoing since the fourth quarter of 2007, said Palo Luckett, chief development officer and managing member.

“This is a big step in reducing the island’s carbon footprint,” said Pacific Light & Power spokesperson Canen Ho‘okano. “We will be regaining our energy independence” and it will help “stabilize” energy prices.

Rather than being at the mercy of fluctuating oil prices, Luckett said, “the input is free, it’s the sun.”
Offsetting 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year from fossil fuels and saving the island from importing around 1 million gallons of diesel annually, the solar thermal farm will implement clean, renewable energy from the sun, Roth said in November.

Different from photovoltaic systems which use light from the sun to create electricity, solar thermal systems capture the sun’s heat.

“Like a magnifying glass burning one hole in one slippah,” Ho‘okano explained.

Multiple rows of 18-foot tall mirrors capture the sun’s heat, warming a fluid located in tubes which run above the solar collectors or troughs.

This 750 degree heated fluid is moved to a heat exchanger that boils water under pressure, generating steam which drives the turbine, thereby creating electricity for the local grid.

The industrial-sized facility will be more efficient, less expensive and will have a greater lifespan that a PV system, Roth said.

When a cloud blocks the sun, PV power drops instantaneously, he cited as an example.

“It would be a nightmare for a grid operator,” he said. Especially for a small grid like Kaua‘i where brown- or black-outs would occur.

Supplying electricity for about 8,000 single-family residences, the facility — located on land owned by the Knudsen family and Kikiaola Land Company — will have storage capabilities of up to three hours, Roth said.

And it won’t look unsightly, he added.

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.

“It will not be a huge, ugly thing,” he said.

 
Image above: Plan view of location forproposed solar power generating plant at turn off to Kekaka town.

Plus, the facility will not generate sound, heat or emissions, Roth added.

It is even expected to have a bike path. “We wanted to create something interesting,” he said.
And in an effort to be good neighbors, Ho‘okano has been spearheading community outreach by meeting with schools and neighborhood associations on the sunny side of the island.

“We’ve had tremendous support from everyone on the Westside,” he said Thursday.

Employees of Pacific Light & Power have also been doing their due diligence as far as preparation for the likelihood of future hurricane conditions.

“Our biggest challenge will be stuff blowing in,” Roth said regarding the possibility of shattered mirrors. But several efforts to mitigate wind, such as straps which will tie down the troughs are already in motion.

“We are planning for the hurricane we know will eventually come,” he said.

With the federal government “picking up 30 percent of the tab,” total costs are expected to be some $70 million, Roth said.

The engineering process and environmental work have already begun and Roth said he is “optimistic” construction will begin by the end of this year.

We would like to see it online by the end of 2011, he said.

For more information visit pacificpowerandlight.com.

• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Farming Sunshine 11/19/09


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1 comment :

SolarAdelaide said...

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