Hawaii Goes Green — An Economically Sickly Green for Its Residents
Guest Post from Dick Storm.
This post was written in June 2020 when Hawaii Electric announced they would shut down the Barber’s Point Coal Plant. I thought this would be a very good experiment of applying the “Green New Deal.” Why? Because Hawaii is an outstanding location for sunshine and wind, so wind and solar have the natural geography and climate to succeed and do well in Hawaii.
Another reason this is an ideal experiment is, Hawaii is an energy island with no ties to the U.S. grid. Therefore, the production costs and reliability are the result of the production capacity that has been installed (or shut down). Here is the update:
Huge Kapolei Battery Plant Replaces Coal at Hawaii Electric
That is the headline of the Canary Media in December 2023. Here is the background as reported in the American Civil Engineering Society article, by Jay Landers:
Among U.S. states, Hawaii has some of the most ambitious mandates for shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to generate electricity. To achieve these mandates, the state aims to rely heavily on battery energy storage systems to provide backup power when intermittent sources such as solar and wind are insufficient or unavailable. On the Hawaiian island of Oahu, a large and sophisticated battery energy storage system recently came online, marking a key point in the state’s efforts to move toward a future of 100% renewable energy.
Situated on 8 acres of industrial land, the Kapolei Energy Storage project comprises 158 Tesla Megapack 2 XL lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are about the size of a shipping container. All told, the KES project provides 185 MW of total rated power capacity, or the largest possible instantaneous discharge, and 565 MWh of energy capacity, or the maximum amount of stored energy.
The system can meet 17% of Oahu’s electricity demand for three hours at peak load or six hours at half load, Brandon Keefe, the executive chair of Plus Power — the company that developed the project — told USA Today. Plus Power “develops, owns, and operates standalone battery energy storage systems that provide capacity, energy, and ancillary services, enabling the rapid integration of renewable generation resources,” according to the company’s Jan. 11 news release announcing the start of operations at its KES facility.
As a percentage of the electricity system that it serves, the KES project is larger than any other battery storage project in the world, Colton Ching, the senior vice president of planning and technology for the Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc., told USA Today. Hawaiian Electric serves 95% of Hawaii’s 1.4 million residents on the islands of Hawaii, Lanai, Maui, Molokai, and Oahu. Each of the islands has its own independent power grid. On Oahu, Hawaiian Electric serves approximately 307,000 customers.
Hawaii is a model of the impact of applying carbon free electricity generation policies before storage technology catches up. “Green Policies” do not necessarily result in “green power” as I will close with the actual power generation in real time. As an engineer specializing in efficient and clean coal power generation for five decades, whenever a coal plant shutdown is in the news, it catches my attention. So, when I read about the plans to shut down the 180 MW, AES Barbers Point Coal Plant near Honolulu, it caught my eye.
The heading of the article in the Honolulu newspaper sums it up nicely: “
Our Cheapest Power Is About to Go Away……. In 2016, HECO paid AES Hawaii an average of 5 cents per kilowatt hour. During the same period, wind was about 20 cents per kilowatt hour, solar about 21 to 23 cents.
Hawaii is a perfect laboratory to show the effect of implementing extreme green policies on electric generation. Why? Because as islands, they are not connected to the US grid. Therefore, the policies as implemented will create a fairly swift impact on electricity prices. According to the EIA, the highest retail electricity price in the USA: Hawaii at $0.3099/kWh.
Digging a little deeper the plans for the future are for 52% renewables by 2021 and 100% renewables by 2045.
As the Democrats in congress push for the new Green New Deal, Hawaii offers an example of the adverse impact on electricity prices. Later, when Barbers Point is shut down, reliability could also become an issue.
If you are interested in the fuel mix for generation on the island of Oahu, here is a link for the real time power generation.
As this is written (7:00 AM on 3/24/2020), I checked and 86% of the power was fossil fuels and of the 14% renewables, they include 9% from the thermal ‘waste to energy’ facility, 5% wind and, because it was early morning, 0% solar.
I have always advocated a “Balanced Portfolio of Generation.” A plan to include LNG, coal, renewables, oil and waste to energy would have been wiser, in my opinion.
Summary and Conclusions
Here is the update on electric rates by the EIA:
Residential rate, $0.416/kWh.
Yes, Hawaii Electric remains the highest cost electricity provider in the U.S. This did not need to happen to Hawaii and there is time to stop the climate policy madness for the rest of the states.
Many of my knowledgeable friends have suggested that if the U.S. was to try to apply 100% renewables, it would be a very good idea to first apply this to one electric supply system, rather than force green energy on all of the states. Well, here we have a completed experiment. Hawaii has passed the test of being the first experiment of applying the “Green New Deal.”
Thank you, Hawaii Electric for providing this outstanding example of applied renewables. My state of South Carolina and also neighboring states are planning similar renewables plus battery storage. Your experiences are helpful.
See original post here for references and sources.
#Hawaii #Electricity #ElectricRates #GreenNewDeal #ClimateChange