By Richard Storm — March 28, 2024
“Thank you Hawaii Electric for providing this outstanding example of applied renewables. My state of South Carolina and neighboring states are planning similar renewables plus battery storage. Your experiences are helpful.”
President Biden’s EPA is working to accelerate the shutdown of coal plants across the U.S. and to force the demise of Internal Combustion Engine. This is about as Un-American as anything I have ever heard or read.
On the issue of shutting down coal plants and replacing with renewables, Hawaii comes to mind as an outstanding experiment. In 2020 I wrote how this would be a “Glimpse Into the Future of the ‘Green New Deal’.” Well, now we are there. The last coal plant in Hawaii was shut down, they installed much generation capacity in renewables and added the largest, or at least one of the largest, Battery Storage Systems in the world. How has it worked out? Here is an update of my June 2020 Blog.
——————
“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 an 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.
December startup
Situated on eight 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 that 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.
Back in mid-2020 I wrote…
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 title 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 U.S.A.: Hawaii at $0.3099/kWh.
I continued:
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 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 (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.
Update!
Here is the update on electric rates by the EIA, Residential rate, $0.416/kWh, a one-third increase. 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 neighboring states are planning similar renewables plus battery storage. Your experiences are helpful.
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References
- Dick Storm Blog post, Hawaii, Green New Deal, A Glimpse into the Future, June 3, 2020
- Huge Kapolei Battery Plant Replaces Coal at Hawaii Electric‘, Canary Media
- ASCE Report/update on the 180 MW Battery Storage at Hawaii Electric, March 12, 2024
- EIA List of U.S. Electricity Rates (December 2023) Hawaii Top Rate for Residential: $0.416/kWh
- “Biden Officials Mull Quicker Death of Coal Plants”, Physics.org News, March 19, 2024
Power generation expert Richard “Dick” Storm writes at Thoughts on Energy, Education, Prosperity & Environment. He describes his career as follows:
God Blessed me with good health to work a long career in power generation. I was fortunate to work all around the world in both Developed and Developing Countries. Over the years I gained an interest in the importance of energy and electricity and the affect that reasonable cost, abundant and reliable electricity has on any society. Thus, after retiring from full time work my main passion is to share my knowledge and experiences with others and to do my best to help educate all of the non energy trained people that I can, to teach in classrooms and lecture halls and spread the true facts on energy and power generation.
I had about 57+ years of total experience in electric power generation with coal power after graduating from Williamson in 1962. My first exposure to large coal plants was experience as a B&W Results Engineer, 1965-1969, Service engineer with Riley Stoker Corp., 1969-1972, Senior Engineer, Principal Engineer and Operations Supt. at Carolina Power and Light Company, 1973-1977. Began the Technical Services Group at Flame Refractories, Inc. 1977 -1992. This group specialized in applied solutions to improve large high pressure boiler performance, reliability and reduced emissions. Founded Storm Engineering and Associates, Inc. and Storm Technologies, Inc. 1992 and 1994.Over the years I have written articles for POWER Magazine, published numerous technical papers, and given presentations based on my experiences.
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If one doesn’t need electricity, renewables work just fine, and the weather is generally pretty nice in Hawaii. Folks in colder climates have a greater need for more reliable electrical generation.
Nevertheless, current electricity costs among the islands of Hawaii support the thesis of this article.
https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/billing-and-payment/rates-and-regulations/average-price-of-electricity
Most of the Hawaii islands, being a tropical rain forest, I cannot imagine the quarterly maintenance on solar.
Not only does everything grow like these are optimal conditions, there are a lot of clouds, poor quality/low nickel stainless steel actually rusts/corrode, and best of all, there are pavement ants, known to borrow through concrete.
And there certainly won’t put these on the lava fields on the big island, it’s too expensive and difficult.
I’ll bring the popcorn, some one else bring the lawn chairs.
The windward sides have rain forests (Hilo), but the leeward sides can be quite dry (Kona).
True and the Kona side has the lava fields I was referring, which are rough for equipment to deal with.
Plus, not many of the indigenous folks would put put up the large scale destruction of these.
Yes, and realistically, how many acres on these tiny islands are available for solar, batteries and wind?
They can go like Germany and cut down the forest to save the forest.
I suspect, just guessing, that much of the currently undeveloped land in Hawaii is publicly owned. Will that be available for wind and solar and battery “farms”?
Offshore, the waters get deep, fast.
Pavement Ants don’t burrow through concrete. They burrow through the sand at the joints.
“The system can meet 17% of Oahu’s electricity demand for three hours at peak load or six hours at half load”. At least Oprah will have power for a little while.
Zuckerberg will build his own power plant….Oprah can do the same.
with their spare change
I don’t see a price tag for that battery system. And I wonder what is it’s likely life span? It should be interesting to keep track of how many times it’ll be needed per year.
Looked it up. KES Financing was $219 million. So $388k/MWh. Hoped for life 20 years. Very expensive bad deal.
THREE hours at peak load.
When the island is under cloud cover for three days as a slow-moving tropical storm passes through, that is 72 hours without solar generation.
“Missed it by that much!”
And as tropical storms pass over, winds generally build to a strength too fast to avoid wind turbine breaking (wind only works between 7-9mph and 50-55mph) below 7 and the blades can’t turn, above 55 and turbine breaking kicks in to protect the bearings
“THREE hours at peak load.”
And for the other 21 hours…. have a deck of cards handy.
Even cards require enough light to see them.
Have you seen the NEW LED cards? 😉
Hawaii and Green Renewables/Undependables? Forgetaboutit! Go Thermal! The Pacific Plate is passing over the Hawaii Hotspot, and the volcanism keeps coming. Dante’s Inferno for free. Well, almost free. Throw a few virgins into the volcano to keep it going.
While guaranteed for several more lifetimes, eventually the islands shift off the hotspot and geothermal cools down.
How long will it remain hot-hot under the top turtle as the bottom turtle moves 8 cm/year to the northwest?
The islands erode away over time….there is evidence in Australia that long ago one of the islands had a landslide under the ocean and caused a tidal wave that reached Australia.
The debris fields from these landslides have been found using sonar. Also, what do you think created those shear cliffs that drop straight into the oceans that are found on many of the islands came from.
Part of Hawai’i is currently starting to break away. Sometime in the next century there’s going to be another huge slide.
“Part of Hawai’i is currently starting to break away. Sometime in the next century there’s going to be another huge slide.”
I bet a huge tax increase would prevent that problem! /sarc off
and throw in some climatistas!
You mean the Just Stop Oil brigade?
lmao
No kidding, they must have geothermal
They obviously haven’t looked too closely at northern CA where I pay 34¢/kWH for off peak power and 56¢/kWH for peak power. BTW my Northern Ca utility is heavily invested in Wind and Solar.
This should make your day:
I pay $0.1021/kWh and friends just to my east in an adjacent county are charged $0.04702/kWh [me – Kittitas Cty; them – Grant Cty ]
There is also a monthly “Facility Fee”. Rates are set yearly but do not change by time of day.
The quoted rates by EIA likely are average statewide rates. There is often a lot of variability in retail rates between utilities and locations within a state. Here in Florida the highest power rates are nearly double the lowest rates. Service locations far from power plants and/or fuel sources tend to be the most expensive, and vice versa.
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.
Link doesn’t appear to work?
TY
It is still dark in Honolulu, so zero energy usage corresponds with renewables.
hmmm…. zero wind? And here I thought it was always breezy there.
It can’t possibly be zero energy usage in a modern society, can it?
strange- a web site comes up but it doesn’t seem to work correctly
When will Hawaii demand that all supplies and tourists arrive via electric planes or wind powered ships?
Well that is how EVERYONE, original “natives” and European dependents, got there.
Now to do it right, require EVERYTHING (not related to direct US military operations) be brought to the islands by wind or solar power. That should fix things up.
I think the word ALL is a synonym for EVERYTHING.
High electricity costs in Hawaii will hardly be noticed by the wealthy folks living there and the wealthy tourists.
So it is a complete failure, and they are happy about it.
Hawaii!!!
I’m amazed that enviros don’t hate seeing huge solar “farms”.
Yes, Hawaii is a perfect site for an experiment in “renewable” energy generation. Since electricity costs have always been high there many solar arrays have been installed on home rooftops to pre-heat supply to electric hot water heaters. They didn’t produce electricity but the water was circulated through eutectic plates. Of course it couldn’t heat the water to the necessary temperature but it did cut the electric bill somewhat.
Remember the patent Griff all weather energy generator? The stationary push-bike with a dynamo fitted.
Get pedalling. You might be able to cook something with a pedal powered hair-dryer – blow-dried, or permed eggs etc,
Like that black mirror episode
California is the king of examples of going “green” for energy and the false promise of less expensive, abundant and reliable electricity.
Here’s just a few of the results…
•300% more expensive power than most of the other 50
•”Flex Alerts” in summer, formerly known as brown-out and black-out alerts when we are short of electricity
•Up to more than 60 percent and more of our electricity imported from several other states and as far away as Canada and Mexico
•Industrial blight of fields of solar panels and windmills, power poles, etc.
The list is endless and growing.
What sums a up the new religion? Is it the sense of hopelessness, the depression, the pointlessness of it all?
For my reaction go direct from 5:55 to 6:25 – Now, that’s a voice that needs no autotune..
17% for 3 hours. Whoop de doo.
Let me know when they get to 100% for 3 weeks.
A quick google of Costa Rica electrical power rates shows a cost of
$.11 compared to the US average of $.1063. I recently read they
switched from oil to LNG. It would be easy for Hawaii to follow suit.
Costa Rica has a lot of hydropower.
Rechecked my memory and it’s Peorta Rico that switched to LNG.
Costa Rico gets almost all it’s electric power from renewables.
Hydro provides 79%, wind is 12%, geothermal 8%. Solar
is less than 1%. It’s all about rivers, dams and volcanos that
makes them #1 in so call renewables. Learn something new
everyday.
“Hydro provides 79%…”
The Greens love to claim hydro numbers yet are against building more dams.
Some of them even want to take down existing dams.
More power to ’em!
(But I guess that’s just wishful thinking.)
Thanks Hawaiians for bearing much higher electric bills for the rest of us….I noticed it was a liitle cooler here in Pennsylvania. I estimate 0.00000000001 degree F, give or take a bunch of zeros. Can’t imagine how many $0.10 kWhs I saved. Thanks again.
Very nice. Wind, solar and batteries are not a substitute for fossil fuel and nuclear energy. All wind and solar must be removed from the grid.
The land destruction of these climate crazies is sad. They truly are making man made climate change. Tropical island where you can grow most anything and they are putting in fields of solar. Some of the most expensive land on the planet.
Aloha from the Department of Solar Panel Dreamtime and expect a call from one of the Disciples extolling the virtue of expensive Green ones over those cheap nasty Chinesium coal fired ones-
‘Future made in Australia’: Government announces solar panel manufacturing program (msn.com)
Remember hula hula folks if you aint broke you aint woke!
PS: Beware Chinesium colonialism and their remote controlled spy panels-
Hail cripples massive solar farm in Texas, sparking resident concern over vulnerable ‘green’ tech, chemical leaks | Sky News Australia
They must have run out of electricity. The link is dead.
So let me get this straight – they have 565 MWh of storage capacity and 307,000 customers on Oahu. So we have 565,000,000 watt-hours divided by 307,000 customers leaves each customer with a meager 1,840 watt-hours of energy for when there is no solar or wind generation.
Hmm, a typical household consumes say 600 KWh per month to be conservative (my 2 bedroom condo uses 800-900KWh/month). That is then 20 KWh per day. So the typical household can only operate for 2 hours and 12 minutes out of a 24 hour day on battery backup power.
Put another way, a typical refrigerator consumes about 113 watts average for it’s complete duty cycle. (about 283 watts when on, and a 40% duty cycle yields average 113 watts) So with only 1840 watt-hours available, you could run the fridge for 16 hours, and nothing else. Forget about a washer or dryer, or hot water heater, or air conditioning…
Are these people complete lunatics??? (believing that intermittent and stupid wind and solar can be managed with battery back up?) These green nutbars are almost as crazy as the “cargo cults” building wooden replicas of WWII planes and worshiping them after the armies left their islands. At least the cargo cults will survive as they are hunter-gatherers, while the sleepwalking masses conned into this green brainwashing will not do so well when there is no food because of refrigeration failure and no transportation via electric vehicles…..
The whole mess sounds like a recipe for depopulating the earth of those (us) nasty talking monkeys!
I wonder why they didn’t put the batteries on the Big Island? Perhaps afraid Madame Pele might object.
If you put too many batteries on one island, it might capsize.