Nixed solar farm projects on Maui raising concerns

Andrew Gomes, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
·3 min read

Nov. 29—Setbacks in Hawaii solar farm development continue to pile up, with yet another planned grid-scale project being canceled.

Setbacks in Hawaii solar farm development continue to pile up, with yet another planned grid-scale project being canceled.

Hawaiian Electric announced Tuesday that Paeahu Solar, a project in South Maui by Innergex Renewable Energy, has been called off after lengthy delays resulting from Innergex legal challenges along with pandemic-related cost and supply chain issues.

The planned 15-megawatt project with a 60-megawatt-­hour battery storage system would have been able to power about 6, 900 homes annually from a renewable clean source at a lower cost than oil-fired power plants operated by Hawaiian Electric.

Paeahu was proposed in 2018 on 200 acres of land leased from Ulupalakua Ranch in Wailea. The state Public Utilities Commission approved the project in 2020, and construction had been expected to start in 2021 and finish in 2022. More recently, Innergex, which is based in Canada, estimated that it could develop Paeahu and start delivering electricity to the utility company's grid in 2025.

Hawaiian Electric said Paeahu is one of four now-­canceled solar and energy storage projects out of five on Maui that had been approved by the PUC in the past five years.

The other three were Kama ­ole Solar, a 40-­megawatt project by Potentia Renewable Developments LLC and Peg Gen Holdings LLC ; Pulehu Solar, a 40-megawatt project by Longroad Energy ; and Kaha ­na Solar, a 20-­megawatt project by Innergex.

The one surviving project is a 60-megawatt solar farm with 240-megawatt-hour battery storage called Kuihelani in Central Maui being developed by AES Corp. This project is expected to come online in 2024.

Mike DeCaprio, vice president of power supply for Hawaiian Electric, said in a statement that the loss of Paeahu and other Maui solar projects is unfortunate and concerning.

"It's unfortunate we aren't able to move forward with Paeahu Solar, which was a key component of Hawaiian Electric's effort to retire fossil fuel generators on Maui, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize customer costs, " he said. "Maui is facing critical deadlines for bringing on new resources by the end of the decade and the loss of Paeahu and other projects is concerning."

Hawaiian Electric said it must retire its Kahului Power Plant by 2028 to meet environmental regulations and that unavailable replacement parts for generation units at its Maalaea Power Plant creates uncertainty about running that facility beyond 2030.

Ed Maddox, senior director of development at Innergex, said in a statement that the company continues to pursue opportunities to add renewable energy projects to the grid in Hawaii.

"Innergex is grateful to the many residents, partners, businesses, and community organizations who supported our efforts to bring new solar power resources to Maui, " he said.

Solar farm development trouble in other parts of the state also have created challenges for meeting a state goal to produce 100 % of energy from renewable sources by 2045.

On Oahu, plans for two much-larger projects in Kunia have been canceled in part due to cost and development delays.

One of these was Mahi Solar, proposed by Boston-based Longroad, with a 120-megawatt capacity and 420 megawatts of storage capable of powering about 37, 000 homes, or 4 % of Oahu's electricity need.

The other canceled Kunia project, Kupehau Solar, was half as big and was proposed by a U.S. affiliate of South Korean-based Hanwha Group called 174 Power Global.