Kaua’i Solar Facility Integrates Battery Storage
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. and Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative have announced the completion of construction of A&B’s 6‑megawatt solar PV facility at Port Allen, Kaua’i. The facility is located on a 20-acre parcel of land owned by A&B adjacent to KIUC’s Port Allen Station power plant.
The facility, which began delivering power to KIUC on December 7, is currently the largest solar generation facility in Hawai’i. The solar facility is expected to generate, approximately 10,200 megawatt hours of electricity per year, and will provide KIUC with clean, renewable solar energy for at least the next 20 years.
“The Port Allen facility is the first of three utility-scale solar PV projects that will come on line on Kaua’i over the next two years,” Bissell added “The A&B solar facility will supply almost 10 percent of KIUC’s daytime electrical load and annually produce about three percent of the total energy used on Kaua’i. By 2015, KIUC expects to draw 50 percent of its daytime electrical load from PV systems, the highest percentage of solar on any grid in the U.S.”
The project was constructed in less than nine months from receipt of PUC approval of the Power Purchase Agreement between McBryde and KIUC. The 6-MW polycrystalline panel solar facility is integrated with a 3-MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) installed by KIUC at the point of interconnection to the grid. The BESS facilitates greater stability on the KIUC system by maintaining a predictable flow of power from the Port Allen solar facility and other intermittent generation resources.
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