Harnessing the Elements by 2045
In late January, Hawai‘i Senator Glenn Wakai noted in a Zoom meeting there was a kink in the islands’ renewable energy plans. The State’s only coal-fired power station is scheduled to shut down in September 2022, but the solar power projects replacing the plant’s 180-megawatt generation were delayed six months to a year.
The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) somehow needed to source enough renewable energy to feed the grid. The whole process would include time-consuming requests for proposals, sorting bids, picking winning contractors, requesting permits, procurement, building, and testing. They had to do it in less than two years, during a global pandemic.
“I think HECO needs to be much faster in its interconnections,” Senator Wakai said. “A recent HNEI study show[ed] that unless unicorns save the day, there is a chance we are going to see blackouts in 2022.”
The Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) study Senator Wakai referred to, does not mention unicorns. However, it does state that even if HECO’s 2022 solar power and energy storage projects were on time, blackouts would still be likely.
In the Zoom meeting with Senator Wakai were scientists, legislators, community leaders, nonprofit representatives, fuel industry officials, and HECO’s leaders.
They were all key people for implementing Hawai‘i’s plan to generate all its electricity from 100 percent renewable energy sources by the year 2045. First announced in 2015, the plan was the first U.S. law mandating a transition to 100 percent renewable energy.
At the time, it was the most aggressive and ambitious clean energy goal in the country. In 2016, other U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) followed suit, spurred by Hawai‘i and the Paris Climate Agreement.
Islands have good reasons to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydroelectric,
