Heavy construction work is under way on development of Kawailoa Wind site

The contractor building the state’s largest wind energy project on Oahu’s North Shore has started heavy construction on the facility that will supply the electricity needs of an estimated 14,500 homes.

RMT Inc., a Wisconsin-based firm specializing in the design and construction of wind and solar energy generating facilities, is building the 69-megawatt Kawailoa Wind project for developer First Wind LLC.

RMT broke ground at Kawailoa late last year and recently started work on major features of the project, including the foundations that will anchor its 30 wind turbines, according to RMT officials.

RMT also is building roads and pads to accommodate the oversize cranes that will be used to hoist the 493-foot-tall wind turbines into place. The project, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, also will include two electrical substations, a maintenance building and a 46-kilovolt transmission line that will feed the power into the Hawaiian Electric Co. grid.

When finished, Kawailoa Wind will be the state’s largest wind energy project, surpassing the combined 51-megawatt generating capacity of First Wind’s Kaheawa and Kaheawa Phase II projects on Maui.

"First Wind is pleased to again be working with RMT and to continue our commitment to building first-class renewable energy facilities in Hawaii," said Michael Alvarez, president and chief financial officer of First Wind. "We appreciate the cooperation and support of the Hawaiian regulatory officials, local government, landowners, neighbors and our construction team in safely building Hawaii’s largest renewable energy facility to date."

In March, First Wind closed on $236 million in financing for the facility. It will sell the electricity generated by the project to HECO under a power-purchase agreement for an average of 22.9 cents a kilowatt-hour through the next 20 years. That’s slightly less than what a utility in Boston recently agreed to pay for wind energy from the planned Cape Wind project. NStar negotiated a price of 24 cents a kilowatt-hour under a 15-year agreement that has yet to be approved by local regulators there, according to news website boston.com.