Turtle Bay adds solar system to help cut power use by 50%

A 400-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system being installed at Turtle Bay Resort is the latest in a series of energy-saving initiatives the resort says will reduce its electricity demand by as much as 50 percent.

When completed in December, the PV system atop the 450-room hotel will save an estimated 1,000 barrels of oil annually that otherwise would have been burned to generate electricity, said Scott McCormack, vice president of real estate for the resort.

The PV system will be developed and owned by a third party, and Turtle Bay will buy the electricity from the developer under a 20-year power purchase agreement at a rate below what it pays Hawaiian Electric Co.

It is the first large-scale PV system built at a resort on Oahu, McCormack said. The ample amount of roof space at the resort made it a good candidate for a rooftop PV system, he added.

Electricity is one of the largest fixed costs at the resort, totaling about $2.5 million a year, he said. The hotel uses about 635,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a year.

"This will save us about $100,000 in the first year of the PPA, not to mention allowing us to be good stewards of the land," McCormack said.

True Generation LLC developed the project. It was installed by Washington Gas Energy Systems and financed by Sol Systems.

The PV system was installed as part of a $35 million renovation project. Other energy-efficiency projects completed at the resort include a lighting retrofit that involved the installation of new LED and energy-efficient lighting fixtures. The resort also installed equipment and gauges to better manage and balance the distribution of energy and prevent wasteful power surges from occurring.

CORRECTION:  A 400-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system is being installed at Turtle Bay Resort. An earlier version of this story and the story in the newspaper said a 400-megawatt system is being installed.