Opponents demonstrate against putting solar farm on Hawaiian Home Lands site

Opponents of a planned solar energy farm on land in Nanakuli Valley owned by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands took to a busy street during rush-hour traffic Thursday to protest the project.

State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) organized the action to rally opponents and to publicize many DHHL beneficiary complaints that the solar farm plan originated without their input and is a bad use of the agency’s trust land.

About 30 people with signs and Hawaiian flags turned out alongside Farrington Highway fronting Zablan Beach below Nana­kuli Valley for the late-afternoon event, which drew streams of encouraging vehicle horn-honking from pau hana traffic.

“We want the people in Nanakuli to know that we are here for them,” said Fevella, who has immediate family members living in Nanakuli Valley.

Demonstrators wore purple shirts commemorating the 100th anniversary in 2020 of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and held signs with messages that included “Protect our Aina,” “A‘ole solar farms” and “Oppose da project.”

DHHL said the planned 15-megawatt solar farm on up to 88 acres on part of the 448-acre Nanakuli Ranch is the highest and best use of low-grade agricultural land in the valley and that the site cannot reasonably be used for beneficiary homesteads because it is in a flood plain.

The agency, which has a wait-list of roughly 23,000 Native Hawaiian beneficiaries seeking residential homesteads, also said the planned solar farm is expected to pay DHHL $165,000 in rent annually over a 55-year land lease that can help fulfill its homestead mission, and that existing homesteaders can benefit from the project if they invest in it through a Hawaiian Electric program that provides investors, even low-income households, a net savings through discounted monthly electricity bills.

DHHL, with Hawaiian Homes Commission approval, solicited bids in August seeking developers to build four community- based renewable energy projects, also known as “solar without a roof,” on DHHL parcels — one in Nanakuli Valley, two on Hawaii island and one on Molokai.

Earlier this month the agency picked developers for the Nanakuli site and one Hawaii island property. Bids were withdrawn for the other two sites.

The winning bidder for the Nanakuli site is Denver- based nonprofit International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Energy. Nexamp Solar LLC was selected for the Hawaii island project.

Some DHHL beneficiaries believe agency leaders should have consulted with them before deciding that solar farms would be the best use of the land and before soliciting bids.

At an October beneficiary meeting via videoconference to discuss the Nanakuli project, comments from beneficiaries overwhelmingly were critical of, or opposed to, the project.

Comments largely conveyed a mix of outright opposition to a solar farm, frustration that beneficiaries weren’t consulted before bids were solicited, and insistence that the land be used for homesteading.

DHHL planner Julie Cachola told meeting participants that DHHL, which owns about 2,200 acres in Nanakuli Valley where about 1,050 homesteads exist, is not using any potential future homestead land for the solar farm.

“We’re not going to put people in that flood plain area,” she said. “We don’t want to put our people in harm’s way.”

Other beneficiaries conveyed views that offering discounted electricity for investors and reducing Hawaii’s use of fossil fuels aren’t enough to warrant the solar project, and that such a project should not be built unless Nanakuli homesteaders get a direct benefit.

“Why are Hawaiians having to give up more land to support the entire island?” read one beneficiary question.

Cachola replied, “I think we see it as an opportunity to utilize resources on our land to help our homestead community as well as the department in terms of meeting our mandate.”

Mark Wong, a Hawaiian Electric community solar program manager, explained that project organizers could ensure that DHHL beneficiaries are able to invest in the project to achieve a financial savings.

According to DHHL’s Oahu land plan, use of the agency’s Nanakuli Valley agricultural land has been an interim use, because of low soil quality and little rain, until a higher and better use materializes. Community solar projects, which Hawaiian Electric began allowing in 2018, have become that higher and better use, according to DHHL.

Fevella and others chafed at what they viewed as late consultation.

“The bids should not be going out until we’ve been more transparent and have a better meeting,” Fevella said at the October meeting.

Fevella told agency leaders that he would continue opposing the project and that other uses such as a community kitchen, community center, senior center and educational facilities would all be better uses of the ranch land than a solar farm.

Patty Kahanamoku- Teruya, chairwoman of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board and homesteader at the bottom of the valley, said the outpouring of opposition is partly because DHHL didn’t ask beneficiaries what they thought of using the land for a solar farm before the agency decided to do it.

“Nobody talked to the community first,” she said while sign-waving Thursday.

DHHL said it plans to hold a second round of beneficiary consultation meetings for the Nanakuli and Hawaii island projects in April or May on dates yet to be set.

The agency also said two public hearings involving project developers and the Hawaiian Homes Commission will be held. After the public hearings, project developers would still need to negotiate detailed terms for the projects if DHHL moves ahead. If the agency is successful and necessary approvals are obtained, the solar farm could be operating late next year.