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The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative announced plans Thursday for the island’s third large-scale photovoltaic project, which it says will boost its solar energy penetration to the highest percentage of any utility in the country.
KIUC officials said they will develop the 12-megawatt facility on 67 acres the utility is leasing from Grove Farm Inc. near Koloa on Kauai’s South Shore. KIUC has hired California-based SolarCity to build the $40 million project.
Combined with two privately developed solar projects — a 12-megawatt photovoltaic system planned for Anahola and a 6-megawatt system nearing completion in Port Allen — Kauai will have 30 megawatts of solar generating capacity. That will be enough power to satisfy about 50 percent of the island’s daytime electricity needs, according to KIUC officials.
"This is a huge step toward achieving our goal of using renewable resources to generate at least half of our power needs by 2023," said Teofilo Tacbian, chairman of KIUC’s board of directors.
When all three projects are completed, Kauai will carry the highest percentage of solar photovoltaics on its system of any utility in the U.S., Tacbian said.
He added the solar energy generated by the Koloa project will replace about 1.7 million gallons of imported oil that KIUC burns each year for electrical generation.
Assuming county and state regulatory approvals are received, KIUC expects to begin construction by July and complete the project by the end of 2014, according to Tacbian. The project is expected to generate about 125 construction jobs, he said.
A 1.5-megawatt battery storage system to which the Koloa project will be connected is already in use at the KIUC substation. That system, along with a second battery storage unit that will be added at the substation, will help smooth out the volatility of solar-generated power before it enters the grid.