Hawaii’s position as one of the leading US states for energy storage deployment shows no sign of weakening as Hawaiian Electric Co last week announced 120MW of new battery storage across two projects in Oahu.
Battery storage is a “necessity” for Hawaii to reach its 100% renewable energy by 2045 target, leading to electric cooperative KIUC becoming the top-ranked US utility for watts of energy storage deployed per customer in 2017.
Projects being delivered for the University of Hawaii will allow various campus buildings to eliminate 70% to 100% of fossil fuel use as the state races towards its 100% renewables by 2045 target.
AES Distributed Energy (AES DE), a subsidiary of AES Corporation, and nonprofit transmission firm Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) have broken ground on a 28MW solar and 100MWh five-hour duration battery energy storage system in Kauai, Hawaii.
Younicos will carry out another project to retrofit lithium-ion batteries in replacement for an existing lead acid battery system at a wind farm, this time in Hawaii.
Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich has said that using behind-the-meter systems to provide grid services could be “extremely valuable in certain targeted ways” as the company rolls out energy storage systems into key regional markets.
A large-scale solar-plus-storage project on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i will be built using SunPower’s scalable Oasis Power Plant platform after the PV technology provider was chosen by AES Distributed Energy.
The Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission has approved two new programmes expanding its customers’ abilities to install rooftop PV and energy storage systems, while also clarifying the terms of its existing programmes.
US energy storage designer and manufacturer SimpliPhi Energy has installed a combination of solar PV and batteries to power air-conditioning units at a school in Hawaii, with a further 1.4MWh of such projects in the pipeline.
