For Immediate Release: September 11, 2008
DBEDT Release News 08-26

HONOLULU--The Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) has been awarded a $500,000 federal Department of Energy (DOE) grant - that will be combined with more than $900,000 in private sector in-kind contributions and $350,000 that the state recently received for related studies - creating a fund of close to $2 million for increased use of renewable energy.

The DBEDT project is one of only 15 state-led clean energy projects that received the U.S. Department of Energy competitive grant award. In addition to this most recent competitive grant, DBEDT also received a $50,000 competitive grant from the National Governors Association in July, to study electric vehicle policy issues, and a $300,000 grant from the Department of Energy to study undersea cabling.

"These grant projects will help study ways to modernize our electrical grids," said DBEDT Director Theodore E. Liu. "This will be the first-step in our renewable energy program for supplying O'ahu with electrical energy from other islands."

"Securing these competitive grants highlights the national leadership role Hawai‘i is playing in renewable energy development," said Lt. Governor James R. "Duke" Aiona, Jr. "Our Administration is committed to breaking Hawai‘i's dependency on imported oil and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through developing clean sources of energy. This public-private partnership will further Hawai‘i's efforts to modernize our electrical infrastructure and distribution system and help increase the energy security of our state."

The projects will focus on four technology areas:

1. Deploying undersea transmission lines to deliver energy generated from wind and solar generation sources on Lana'i and Moloka'i to O'ahu;
2. Upgrading and expanding O'ahu's transmission and distribution system to enhance reliability and stability and to be able to accept up to one gigawatt of renewable energy;
3. Evaluating the integration of electric vehicle storage into the electrical grid to maximize renewable energy use; and
4. Deploying a suite of energy storage systems to study both grid stability issues and bulk power issues raised by new "as-available" renewable energy systems.

Financing, configuration, ownership, and management will be examined, as well as the stability of the O'ahu electrical grid. Ultimately, this project will identify and recommend policies for large-scale energy and storage systems and the specific technical requirements that would allow the integration of large as-available renewable energy into the utility grid.

DBEDT will partner with the Hawaiian Electric Company, First Wind, Castle & Cooke, and Better Place. Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute and Enterprise Honolulu will assist in the project.

These latest grants build on the progress of the Hawai‘i Clean Energy Initiative, an unprecedented partnership formed in January between the State of Hawai‘i and the U.S. Department of Energy. The goal of the Initiative is to significantly decrease energy demand and accelerate the use of renewables, so that clean energy resources will be sufficient to supply 70 percent of Hawai‘i's energy needs by 2030.

As part of the partnership, in April the Department of Energy selected Hawai‘i as part of a nationwide demonstration project to modernize the country's electricity grid system. The estimated cost of the Hawai‘i grid modernization project is $15 million which includes a $7 million investment by the DOE and an additional $8 million from private sector partners including General Electric, Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Maui Electric Company, Columbus Electric Cooperative, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Sentech and First Wind.

Also this year, the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced it would establish a wind technology program at First Wind's Kaheawa Wind Farm on Maui. It is the first such partner site for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's wind technology program outside of its base in Colorado.

These collaborative partnerships are part of the Lingle-Aiona Administration's efforts to reduce the state's dependence on imported oil and help bring energy price stability to Hawai‘i consumers.

For more information, contact:
Ted Liu, Director
Phone: (808) 586-2355

Theodore Peck, Energy Planning & Policy Branch Manager
Phone: (808) 587-3803
Email: tpeck@dbedt.hawaii.gov

Partners:

First Wind is an independent North American wind energy company focused exclusively on the development, ownership and operation of wind energy projects. It is currently active on Maui.

Castle & Cooke's proposed wind farm on Lana'i could provide 15 percent to 20 percent of O'ahu's power needs. It would generate 300 to 400 megawatts of power, or 10 times more energy than Hawai‘i's largest existing wind farm. To put that in context, the total electric generating capacity for the Big Island is 300 megawatts.

Better Place is a revolutionary company that is making the dream of non-polluting electric cars a reality. Better Place is building the infrastructure that will bring greater convenience and affordability to electric cars. Better Place hopes to install standard 4Kw electric charging points in parking spots at work, at retail and downtown, so that when drivers park their electric car to go shop or work or exercise, they will return to a fully topped-off automobile.

Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) and its subsidiaries, Maui Electric Company, Ltd. (MECO), and Hawai‘i Electric Light Company, Inc. (HELCO), provide electrical power to 95 percent of the state's 1.2 million residents on the islands of O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i Island, Lana‘i and Moloka‘i.