Hawaiian Electric agrees to purchase of solar projects

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Hawaiian Electric Company is reviving plans to purchase electricity from a pair of massive solar farms on Oahu, according to a release by the company on Tuesday afternoon.

Under the terms of the agreement, HECO will provide electricity to the grid with power farmed from two facilities planned for Central Oahu: a 14.7-megawatt Lanikahana Solar plant, and a 45.9-megawatt plant in Waipio, which would be amongst the state's largest.

The biggest solar farm currently providing power to the HECO grid, a 27.6-megawatt facility in Waianae, began operations last week.

Energy from the Lanikuhana facility will be purchased at 11.4 centers per kilowatt-hour. The cost for energy from the Waipio facility is a cent less.

The two companies are also moving ahead with prior plans to purchase electricity from a 49-megawatt facility on Oahu's North Shore.

"Working with NRG to get these projects back on is an important step forward in our renewable energy plans for O'ahu," said Alan Oshima, Hawaiian Electric president and CEO. "Our decision to cancel the SunEdison agreements before bankruptcy has allowed us to bring better value to our customers who will get the benefits of lower prices over the life of these contracts."

Both facilities are expected to come online in 2019. The projects were acquired by NRG Energy after SunEdison filed for bankruptcy last year.

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