Hawaii Study: Wind and Solar Can Reliably Supply 25% of Oahu's Electricity

Reginald Norris
March 23, 2011 | 7 Comments

The Oahu Wind Integration Study (OWIS) recently released a study detailing the impact on the Oahu grid if a total of 500 MW of wind energy and a nominal 100 MW of Hawaii solar power came online as is expected.

The study found that the 500 MW of wind and 100 MW of solar power could eliminate the need to burn approximately 2.8 million barrels of low sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) and 132,000 tons of coal each year, if a number of recommendations are implemented:

Provide wind power forecasting to help anticipate the amount of power that will be available from wind in a given area;
Increase power reserves (the amount of power that can be called upon from operating generators) to help manage wind variability and uncertainty in wind power forecasts;
Reduce minimum stable operating power of baseload generating units to provide more power reserves;
Increase ramp rates (the time it takes to increase or decrease output) of Hawaiian Electric's thermal generating units;
Implement severe weather monitoring to ensure adequate power generation is available during periods of higher wind power variability;
Evaluate other resources capable of contributing reserve, such as fast-starting thermal generating units and load control programs.

The study cautions that in order to ensure system reliability there will need to be further studies of renewable energy and the gird, improvements to the existing power infrastructure as well as new investment in the grid for complete and seamless integration. With these and other proposed changes, the technical analysis suggests, Oahu can accommodate increased wind and solar energy projects with minimal limits on output of renewable resources.

The Oahu Wind Integration Study was conducted by the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, General Electric (GE) Company and the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO). The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE), assembled a technical review committee with representatives of industry and academia which met throughout the project to review findings. NREL also contracted the private firm AWS Truepower to develop wind and solar energy profiles that were used in the study.

"The findings of this study show it is feasible to integrate large-scale wind and solar projects on Oahu but also have value beyond Hawaii. Both large mainland utilities and relatively small and/or isolated grids that wish to integrate significant amounts of renewable energy while maintaining reliability for their customers can learn from this study," said Dr. Rick Rocheleau, HNEI director.

Via Solar-Hawaii.org

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7 Comments

Marvin Hamon, P.E.
March 29, 2011

An interesting study. I keep an eye on Hawaii because renewable energy penetration will probably be higher there than anywhere else in the US for awhile due to the small load and large renewable resources. As the study says, their fossil fuel energy production and power distribution systems are small and even without renewables they are fragile. If Hawaii can figure out how to handle renewable energy well then it is a good sign for the rest of the country

Unfortunately the study shows that much work still needs to be done on storage before renewable energy sources can be used as base load generation. It also shows that fossil fuel power plants will still be around for awhile and on spinning reserve to make up for the variability of wind and solar without backup storage. It's going to be awhile before we don't have to have enough fossil fuel power plants running on standby to handle 100% of the load irrespective of the amount of renewable energy that is available but variable.

Let's make it work in Hawaii.

Howard Johnson
March 25, 2011

Gentlemen,

An electric car company IS in Hawaii:

http://www.betterplace.com/global-progress-north-america-hawaii

Phil Manke
March 25, 2011

Yes, I agree with comment 3, Et Al, This dissertation is predicated on Utility data, and it shows in the limitations. They would not want you to know that you wouldn't need them. ALL of Hawaii's energy could be gotten from RE sources far more efficiently that on the mainland US. Most of it could be the distributed variety. I don't know why their is not a mass movement to it. Could it be the same Ute's keeping it back? I've read building codes are restrictive. What is really behind that? I don;t buy the "unsightly solar" slam.

Derek Boyle
March 25, 2011

Good stuff crazyhorse, especially with Hawaii's abundant solar resources and perfect location for widespread electric vehicles. I'm hoping to see more white roofs and thin film solar applications, and state and federal 50-50 energy tax credit refunds so homeowners and businesses can upgrade their energy efficiency while investing in their local communities.

Excess renewable energy can also be used to create liquid fuels thereby increasing their economic efficiency as well as provide fuller employment in manufacturing and farming for energy. Hawaii is long overdue in attracting windmill and solar manufacturing, powered by geothermal and becoming 100% renewable energy self sufficient.

Kicking Oil Addiction With Windfuels: "off-peak excess wind energy to recycle CO2 into standard fuels that work seamlessly in the one billion cars and trucks"
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/guest-post-kicking-oil-addiction-permanently-with-windfuels/

"Windfuels provide the potential for the U.S. to transition from the world's largest importer of oil to the world's largest exporter of carbon-neutral transportation fuels."…"synthetic fuels could be competitive when oil is as low as $50/bbl -- and always when oil is above $95/bbl."

"Approximately 25 TWh (yes, 25 terawatt-hours) of wind energy was curtailed (idled) in the U.S. last year to keep the off-peak grid energy price from frequently going negative. That is about equal to the energy in 700 million gallons (16 Million Barrels) of gasoline just being thrown away. Curtailed wind energy in the U.S. appears likely to exceed 40 TWh in 2011 (26 Million Barrels)."

Richard Elder
March 25, 2011

What utter nonsense. "Studies" like this based upon business- as-usual premises are designed to maintain the status quo and restrict the growth of renewable energy alternatives.
1- Hawaii has the best potential capacity utilization factor of any state in the US. A nameplate 4 MW turbine will produce as much as twice the electricity over the course of a year as the same unit in Iowa. Hawaii has mountainous terrain that holds the potential for pumped storage to turn wind into a base load energy source.
2- The solar component is assumed to be only 16% of the total, and is PV with no storage capacity. If more cost efficient solar thermal systems were used, along with molten salt or saturated steam storage the renewable energy contribution of combined wind and solar could approach 70%.
3- Oahu (along with Vancouver BC) is the best single location for EV transportation in North America, due to population density and access to renewable energy sources.
4- Hawaii has exceptional geothermal, wave, biomass,and temperature gradient potentials that could supply the remaining energy needs and make Hawaii the first energy independent island territory in the world.

Manuel Moraleda
March 25, 2011

Hawaii is overflowing with geothermal energy waiting to be 'noticed'. i'm wondering why not more energy (human) is utilized into its exploration. I truly believe that geothermal source alone would power Hawaii. Would somebody please explain as to - Why not ?

Bob "The Clean Energy Guy" Mitchell
March 24, 2011

I would think that with it's geothermal and wave energy potential included in the mix, that the intermittent nature of wind and the day time limits of solar, could be mitigated and compensated for.

Also, how about closed loop, pumped hydro energy storage? Has that been looked into?

Bob "Free As The Wind" Mitchell