Solar panels can work on runway

Ford Island has been recognized as an important site in American history after the Japanese attacked it and Battleship Row on Dec. 7, 1941. That should not mean that its airstrip must be retained in its present decrepit condition. In a delicate balance toward a "green" energy future while respecting the past, the Navy should move ahead in its vision to cover the weedy runway with photovoltaic panels in a way that recognizes its part in history.

The 450-acre island is maintained by the Navy as the centerpiece of the Pearl Harbor National Landmark District, bearing remnants of bomb craters and two World War II hangars with windows pocked by bullet holes. The nonprofit Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor conducts tours of the island, which remains an active military base. The museum does valuable work in bringing history alive, and in educating young and old alike on military aviation and the pivotal roles played in WWII’s Pacific theater.

Kenneth DeHoff, the museum’s executive director, calls the plan "an atrocity that the Navy is going to cover that (runway area) with something that’s electronic. It’s a disrespect to the ground." He adds, "Let Mother Nature take care of it. Don’t try to asphalt it again. It was originally a grass strip out there."

However, it seems overprotective to quash the Navy’s creative initiative to channel green energy atop unkempt acreage. The ground consists of a weedy strip on which military families — living in 231 new homes that were erected on the island as part of the 2003 Ford Island Master Development Agreement — fly kites and exercise dogs.

Navy plans call for 27.5 acres of angled photovoltaic panels, emitting a capacity of 2.5 megawatts of capacity, set on precast concrete ballasts that would not penetrate the ground. Such low-impact use of the airstrip seems wholly reasonable.

However, initial plans that called for the PV panels to be surrounded by benign foot-high vegetation fencing and a "small trench to deter automobile traffic," may have been overly optimistic. An updated study says that security fencing is expected to be more obvious, and that the initial flat black solar panels simulating a runway from a distance might need to be elevated and tilted.

The Navy indicated it is checking on whether the PV system could be installed as originally envisioned: to resemble the original runway and a white "X" painted every 1,000 feet to signify a closed runway. We hope so.

Historic preservation agencies, intrigued and "cautiously optimistic" by the initial vision, now want more details, says Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation. The Navy should do what it can to carry through on its original, low-impact idea.

Ford Island will continue to be known as the site of the USS Arizona Memorial and, since 1998, the final home of the battleship USS Missouri, accessed by shuttle bus from the Pearl Harbor Visitors Center.

An island recognized in some quarters as the Gettysburg of the Pacific will remain known as the site of destruction of Navy battleships. It is less known for its small airstrip, which ought to be visually recognized for its place in history. The plan as set by the Navy should achieve that goal.