The Honokaa Generating Station, which provides about a third of the island’s electricity, is scheduled for renovation.
Hamakua Energy will convert its facilities to use 100% renewable fuels. The state has a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045, and officials with Pacific Current, Hamakua Energy’s parent company, say between a quarter and a third of the electricity the company currently generates comes from biodiesel.
“Biodiesel is available locally right now in reasonable quantities,” Pacific Current President Scott Valentino said Wednesday. “We get all of our biodiesel from Pacific Biodiesel, and it’s all local. It’s made from local feedstock, waste oil from local restaurants.”
“But as renewable fuels become more prevalent, we’ll see more renewable diesel and more renewable naphtha. We’ll be looking at the ability to burn a variety of renewable fuels.”
Both renewable diesel and renewable naphtha are “produced from the same feedstocks” as biodiesel, Valentino said.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, these include soybean oil and canola oil. These oils are processed to be chemically identical to petroleum diesel. Naphtha is also produced from hydrogenated vegetable oils and can be used to produce both diesel and aviation fuel.
“The advantage of naphtha is that it’s cheaper than diesel and oil,” Valentino said.
“From a resiliency perspective, we need multiple fuels,” added Marcelino Sousas, vice president of strategy and business development at Pacific Current Corp. “We like biodiesel because it’s locally produced, but in five years’ time, in 2030, other fuels will be available. To do what’s best for the island, we want to choose the fuel that’s the most economical option for the grid.”
Hamakua Energy produces 60 megawatts of electricity per day to supply Hawaiian Electric’s Big Island grid. The project is one of 15 renewable energy projects statewide selected by Hawaiian Electric to further reduce Hawaii’s reliance on imported crude oil for electricity generation.
Hamakua Energy’s project is one of four renewable energy projects underway on Hawaii Island and the only one that uses reliable renewable generation to produce clean electricity even when the sun isn’t shining or the wind is not blowing.
The other three are the 55-megawatt Kaiwiki Solar in East Hawaii, and Puako Solar and Keaumuku Solar in West Hawaii, with 60 and 86 megawatts of generating capacity, respectively. All three combine solar power with battery energy storage systems. Kaiwiki and Puako are scheduled to begin operation in 2028, and Keaumuku is scheduled for completion in 2030.
The upgraded Hamakua Energy Plant, which uses two turbines to generate steam and electricity, will continue to occupy the seven-acre site. Upgrades include a battery energy storage system capable of providing 30 megawatt-hours of backup energy to increase reliability.
“It will be an independent grid resource,” Valentino said of the battery energy storage system, “and it will charge from excess energy from the grid. … Hamakua is a place that doesn’t get a lot of solar radiation, but HECO can take excess solar energy from the grid and use that to charge the batteries. We’re not going to be charging the batteries from our plant. We’re talking about two different resources.”
In addition to adding battery energy storage systems, Sousas said a large part of the construction at the existing plant will be to refurbish fuel tanks.
“We’ll get environmental permits in place from the appropriate agencies at the appropriate time,” he said. “We’ll also need (state Public Utilities Commission) approval, so we’re hopeful that we’ll get started sometime next year.”
Valentine said Hamakua Energy’s existing power purchase agreement with HECO runs through December 2030, and the goal of upgrading to 100% renewable fuels will come in the company’s next contract with the utility, which starts in January 2031.
“So all this work will be completed between 2028 and 2029,” he said.
Valentino and members of the Hamakua Energy team will present an overview of the upgrade project at a community meeting at Cafe Il Mondo, 45-3580 Mamane St. in Honokaa, on October 3rd at 4pm. Community members are invited to attend this free meeting.
A separate virtual meeting will be held on Oct. 8 at 6 p.m.
Those interested in attending the meeting can register at hamakuaenergyllc.com, where more information is also available.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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