11/12/2018 – Not only does Hawaii rely on imported oil for 67.3 percent of its electricity production, another 15.1 percent comes from coal-fired power generation. A devastating climate footprint for the archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. And the import of oil also drives up the price of electricity. Hawaii’s 1.4 million residents have to pay more than twice as much for their electricity as people on the US mainland.
The ambitious plan is therefore to switch to 100 percent renewable energies by 2045, produced autonomously by the mainland and secured with gigantic storage facilities. “The challenges are huge, and the path to the future has not yet been explored,” says Colton Ching of Hawaiian Electric’s largest power company bizz energy. Ching warns that there is a lack of data or experience because there has never been a transformation to renewable energy on this scale.
Renewable energies in the single-digit percentage range
Because currently renewable energies are bobbing in Hawaii in the single-digit percentage range. While wind power accounts for 6.4 percent, solar energy only contributes 0.9 percent to the power supply of the archipelago. The southwestern coasts of the islands are particularly dry Climate with a lot of sunshine. But there is already movement in the matter. Seven solar energy projects with an output of 260 megawatts (MW) are in the planning and construction phase. It is built on the three largest islands, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii. Each solar project will be connected to gigantic storage systems with storage capacities of up to 120 MW. Underwater cables and a sophisticated communication and control system are designed to connect all of Hawaii’s islands and make them independent of the mainland.
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