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Kauai Island Utility Cooperative broke ground for a solar facility with battery storage Monday.
The SolarCity solar array attached to a Tesla battery storage system is being built under a 20-year contract between SolarCity and KIUC. The system is across from the Kapaia Power Station at 4149-K Maalo Road in Lihue.
SolarCity said the Tesla Powerpack lithium-ion battery storage system can deliver up to 52 megawatts of electricity onto the grid between 5 and 10 p.m., and will contribute about 5 percent of the electricity generated by renewables on Kauai.
KIUC said the solar system will help the utility meet its goal of using renewable resources to generate half of Kauai’s electricity by the end of 2019.
Hawaiian Airlines dispatchers OK pact
Hawaiian Airlines dispatchers, represented by the Transport Workers Union, ratified a five-year contract that provides wage increases, the company said Monday.
“Our dispatchers have been an important part of our company’s success, and we are delighted to have forged a contract that recognizes their contributions,” said Jon Snook, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Hawaiian Airlines.
“We also appreciate TWU’s recognition of our competitive position as a smaller leisure fare carrier focused exclusively on carrying passengers to and from the Hawaiian Islands.”
The TWU represents 44 employees at the company.
On the Move
Bank of Hawaii has announced two new executive vice presidents:
>> Jeff Graves has joined the bank as an executive vice president and chief technology officer in the Information Technology Department. He has more than 20 years of extensive experience in IT infrastructure, application development, architecture and planning, information management and organizational management. Most recently, Graves served as a senior vice president and director of IT at Zions Bancorp in Utah for 17 years.
>> James K.M. Moniz, a mortgage banking manager, has been promoted to executive vice president from senior vice president. He is responsible for the production, sales and compliance of the bank’s Mortgage Banking Division. Moniz began as a loan officer with BOH in 2002. Then he worked from 2007 to 2011 at Nissan North America and returned to Bank of Hawaii as a manager of the Dealer Indirect Lending Department, which he oversaw until 2015.
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