To celebrate Earth Day on Tuesday, the City and County of Honolulu formally unveiled a massive installation of 4,554 large-format photovoltaic panels to assist in powering its prime entertainment venue.
Atop the third floor of the parking structure at Neal S. Blaisdell Center, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and other city officials announced completion of a four-year project that will use solar energy connected to a wall-size bank of electric batteries at the city-owned property at 777 Ward Ave.
Completed in December, the solar array spans the entire upper deck of the parking structure and will provide 100% of the Blaisdell Center’s daytime power use, reduce carbon pollution and provide shaded parking for visitors, the city said.
Tuesday’s media event also highlighted the release on the same day of the Mayor’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency’s 2025 Annual Sustainability Report for Oahu.
That document — mandated by city law to be completed each year, with the latest report spanning calendar year 2024 — outlines the progress the city says it’s made in terms of city operations, climate plans, clean and affordable modes of transportation, food security, waste management and disaster preparedness.
The solar project, built with oversight by the city Department of Design and Construction, included contractors installing 200 tons of steel to build the solar array.
“This project represents another key step towards achieving the ambitious and essential climate goals that we track progress on every year in the annual sustainability report,” Ben Sullivan, executive director of the Office of Climate Change, said during the morning event.
Haku Milles, the city Department of Design and Construction director, said “this huge PV canopy system” was under a so-called energy savings performance contract “in which we are working on various city buildings across the island.”
ESPCs, according to the city, help reduce energy consumption, water use and demand on utilities.
Allyn Lee, DDC’s chief of mechanical and electrical division, said the ESPC contract directly involved Johnson Controls and Good Current Hawaii.
“We worked together in planning, coordinating and implementing the various energy conservation measures at over 80 city buildings, and installing over 60 photovoltaic systems to improve how we use electricity in our public buildings,” he said.
Lee said multiple ESPC projects were done in phases.
“The first phase involved various energy conservation measures in 10 city buildings that consume the highest amount of energy,” he said. “These buildings included the Fasi Municipal Building, the Honolulu Police Department headquarters and the Honolulu Fire Department headquarters.”
Phase 1 was completed in 2022, he said.
“The resulting energy savings of nearly $2 million annually exceeded our expectations,” Lee added. “These savings will be used to pay for the project over a 20-year period.”
The second phase involved more than 80 other city-owned buildings, he said.
“These facilities include police and fire stations, corporation yards, satellite city halls, transit facilities, municipal golf courses, the Honolulu Zoo and here at the Neal Blaisdell Center,” Lee added.
He said that during the course of construction of Phase 2, the city saved “over $1.7 million in energy costs.”
“This phase was completed in December,” he said. “We are currently measuring and verifying the energy savings. We are anticipating that we will be saving another $2 million annually.”
Afterward, Lee told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the city did not pay for the PV system project’s “upfront costs” to Johnson Controls.
“They arrange third-party financing through a local bank,” he added. “And then we pay the bank on an annual basis for a 20-year term to pay for the construction, but that’s through the energy savings that we generate for this project.”
He said, “As far as the total cost of the projects, I can only give you a rough order of magnitude.”
“For the ESPC projects the total cost is $60 million; however, we’ll pay that off through the energy savings (and) through rebates,” Lee said. “Now, the order of magnitude for the photovoltaic system is around $30 million or so.”
“So the total project is around $100 million,” he added, “but the good thing is it’s not being paid upfront by the city.”
Meanwhile, Sullivan said the city’s annual sustainability report goals are “long- standing” and “difficult” to accomplish.
“One in particular that I’m thinking of is the statewide commitment to zero emissions or better by 2045,” he said.
He noted a few highlights from the sustainability report, excluding the increase in energy use as Skyline rail operations started in 2023.
“City facilities have used less grid electricity every year since 2018, every single year, accounting for a more than 20% reduction in use over that time,” he said.
Likewise, he added that city facilities also generated 10.5 megawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2024, “which is an 8% increase” from 2023. Total electricity generated by renewable sources islandwide increased by 5.6%, “with the largest share of that being rooftop PVs,” he said.
“On an islandwide level per capita, water consumption decreased by 2-1/2%,” he claimed.
As far as transportation, he said the number of plug-in electric vehicles increased by “22% year over year.”
“There’s 25,000 or thereabouts electric vehicles on Oahu, so that’s a big, big increase,” he asserted.
He said that “sales of Oahu’s food hubs increased by 5.7%,” compared with the previous year.
In addition, 1,288 trees were planted on city properties, contributing over 3,500 communitywide plantings, the city says. And in 2024, the city claims, disaster preparedness and response training was provided to over 1,300 people on Oahu.
For more information on the city’s latest Annual Sustainability Report, visit resilientoahu.org/sustainabilityreport.
