Kahuku Wind Power Gets $117 Million DOE Loan Guarantee
Posted in Battery Technology, Wind Power on August 2nd, 2010 by News Desk –
Oahu, Hawaii — Kahuku Wind Power, the developer of a planned 30 megawatt (MW) wind power plant that is expected to supply electricity to about 7,700 households per year and create over 200 jobs on the island of Oahu, has obtained a $117 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The project is expected to be the first one to meet reliability requirements for wind and solar energy set by Hawaiian Electric Co., which is the only electric utility operating on Oahu. According to Kahuku Wind, successful integration of the wind and solar energy technologies is expected to result in increased renewable energy generation and wind energy expansion in Hawaii, generally.
The Kahuku wind power plant will use twelve (12) 2.5-megawatt Liberty wind turbine generators made by Clipper Windpower and a 10-megawatt battery energy storage system manufactured by Xtreme Power. The battery system will modulate and smooth fluctuations in power output caused by changes in wind levels. When completed, Kahuku will be the first-ever combined installation of Clipper wind turbines and Xtreme’s energy storage technology.
First Wind Holdings, an independent, U.S.-based wind energy developer and the project sponsor for Kahuku, built and currently operates the largest wind energy facility in Hawaii, the 30-megawatt Kaheawa Wind project in Maui, which provides nearly 9% of that island’s annual electricity.
