Pacific Light and Power is beginning by developing projects on Kauai, the Hawaiian island with the smallest percentage of renewables. Even as our pilot project proceeds, we are expanding our vision to the rest of Hawaii and beyond, researching projects on Oahu, Maui, the Big Island, and the greater Pacific.
We have developed a model that will enable Hawaiian utilities to stabilize their prices, meet their mandates for carbon reduction, and provide firm renewable power. In so doing, we’ve created a template for all of the tropical Pacific.
Our Solutions
Concentrated Solar Thermal is our favored technology, offering an abundant stable input source, low output pricing, and the lowest carbon impact. Solar Thermal installations generate steam which can be integrated with many existing turbine driven power plants or can produce power on a stand alone basis with its own “power block.” Thermal Energy Storage enables us to overcome short-term cloud cover and gives us solar availability similar to desert areas of the US Southwest.
Hawaii and many other Pacific island locations contain vast geothermal potential. Our joint venture partner has developed the only geothermal power plant in Hawaii. Together, we are assessing other options for feasibility.
Water can be as abundant a resource in the tropics as the sun. We are looking into pumped-storage hydro as an inexpensive means to “firm up” the variable power of a concentrated solar thermal system. In addition to that, we are assessing possibilities of “run-of-ditch” operations for hydro in existing irrigation installations.