USA - Hawaii’s largest wind energy project to date

Located on Kamehameha Schools’ Kawailoa Plantation lands on Oahu’s North Shore, the 69 megawatt (MW) wind project will be able to generate enough clean and cost-competitive wind energy to power the equivalent of approximately 14,500 homes on the island. At full output, it has the potential to meet as much as five to ten percent of Oahu’s annual electrical demand and avoid the burning of about 300,000 barrels of oil each year.

“This is, by far, the single largest wind energy project in Hawaii’s history,” said Lt Governor Brian Schatz. “We should all be pleased and proud that we are making good progress towards more affordable, sustainable energy. We’ve got more work to do, but this is an important moment in our efforts towards a clean energy future.”

“We are proud to complete work on our Kawailoa Wind project, which represents our fourth project in Hawaii to achieve commercial operations over a six-year period,” said Paul Gaynor, CEO of First Wind. “Hawaii has shown true leadership in its aggressive clean energy goals and First Wind has strived to support this vision by developing new sources of cost-competitive renewable energy. Now with our Kawailoa project online, First Wind’s combined projects on Oahu and Maui have the capacity to generate enough clean energy to serve over 40,000 businesses and homes in local communities throughout Hawaii.”

Late last year, the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission approved a power purchase agreement between First Wind and the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), which serves more than 400,000 Hawaii customers. Hawaii state law mandates 70 percent clean energy for electricity and surface transportation by 2030, with 40 percent coming from local renewable sources. Kawailoa Wind will significantly advance the state’s progress toward these goals.

“Wind power is an important clean energy resource for Hawaii and one of the keys to breaking our dependence on imported oil. Kawailoa Wind will provide the people of Oahu with clean, locally-produced energy for decades to come,” said Dick Rosenblum, Hawaiian Electric Company president and CEO.

Developed in concert with Kamehameha Schools (KS) as part of their North Shore Plan, Kawailoa Wind reflects a genuine collaboration with the community. The plan was completed in 2008 after nearly two years of extensive community consultation. First Wind has been discussing the project with North Shore residents and community organizations for the past three years and worked with federal, state, and county agencies to obtain the necessary permits.

“The clean energy benefits of this project are outstanding,” said Kamehameha Schools Regional Asset Manager Giorgio Caldarone. “Kamehameha Schools is pleased to be a part of making this important contribution to reaching Hawaii’s renewable energy goals.”

Kamehameha Schools Senior Asset Manager Kapu Smith, who oversees all agricultural activities on Kamehameha’s 6,000 acres of Kawailoa farm lands, added that Kawailoa Wind provides important support to agriculture on the North Shore. “Lease rent from this project will help offset the cost of ongoing infrastructure improvements and maintenance – like water systems, roadways, fences and so forth – and enable the continuation of reasonable agricultural rent levels for existing and future tenants. These things are critical to keeping these lands available for farming.”

RMT Inc. oversaw the installation of 30 state-of-the-art Siemens turbines on the Kawailoa Wind project site. Work on the project started in December 2011 and created an average of 108 construction-related jobs while generating significant revenue for the surrounding community. The project drove nearly 220,000 on-site labor hours during construction, and dozens of Hawaii businesses were involved through development and construction supply chains.

Now generating clean energy for the island’s electrical grid, the Kawailoa Wind is expected to reduce oil consumption by about 300,000 barrels of oil on Oahu per year, which in turn would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 134,000 tons on an annual basis. As with its other projects on Maui and Oahu, First Wind developed a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for Kawailoa Wind, working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Division of Forestry and Wildlife of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. The HCP is a wildlife conservation effort that includes research funding and actions to protect and minimize incidental harm to federally listed species in the vicinity of the wind energy project.

First Wind is an independent wind energy company that develops, finances, builds and operates utility-scale wind projects in the United States. Headquartered in Boston, First Wind operates wind projects in the Northeast, the West and Hawaii, with the capacity to generate up to 875 megawatts of power and projects under construction with the capacity to generate up to an additional 105 megawatts.

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