Wind farms — a new type of crop

Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim.

The wind that blows in drafty spots in the Islands appears to be the best alternative source of energy we have other than bagasse.

"Without a doubt, there is more than enough wind power at our primary wind sites to provide all the electrical energy that is needed in the long-term future," said D. Rich-ard Neill, energy self-suffi- ciency coordinator of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. "However, a realistic potential is that by 1990 wind could produce 30 per cent of the electrical power we need."

Of course, the wind doesn’t blow all the time not even at Kahuku, the premier wind spot in the Islands.

"The trouble with solar energy and wind energy is that they are intermittent and so they can never solve your problems by themselves," said Dr. Sidney Browned, program coordinator for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.

Besides Kahuku, the best wind spots in the Islands are Kahua Ranch on the Big Island, which has the strongest wind force; West Molokai; and McGregor Point on Maui.

A 200-kilowatt wind machine is to be built at Kahuku this year. It’s a model MOD-1 machine, designed and built by Boeing Aircraft, with 125-foot blads like propellers.

MOD-1 will cost $2 million, paid for by the federal government. West- inghouse Electric Co. will do the work. Hawaii Electric Co. will spend $120,000 to hook the power into the utility grid.

What will that big machine sound like?

"It makes an intermittent deep whir," said one person who listened to a 200-kilowatter performing on the Mainland.

But the big project that will determine the success of wind energy here is the proposed wind farm at Kahuku. Two companies are in serious consideration.The leading candidate is Wind Farms Inc. of San Francisco. Its president is Way Van Dyck. The other is PanAero Corp. of Golden, Colo. Van Dyck hopes to erect thirty-two 1,500-kilowatt wind machines which are 30 stories high. Hawaiian Electric has signed a letter of intent to buy 80 megawatts of power which the 32 machines would produce. Thirty-two wind machines would produce 8 percent of the Oahu electrical load at 1979 levels. Van Dyck estimated that the 32 machines would cost $150 million to $200 million. Hawaiian Electric says that with transmission costs it would run more than $240 million.