Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tesla's New Solar Energy Station On Kauai Will Power Hawaii At Night (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the the-future-is-bright dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: The Kapaia project is a combination 13MW SolarCity solar farm and 53MWh Tesla Powerpack station on the island of Kauai. In partnership with the KIUC (Kauai Island Utility Cooperative) the project will store the sun's energy during the day and release it at night. The station (along with Kauai's other renewable resource solutions including wind and biomass) won't completely keep the island from using fossil fuels but it will temper the need. In addition to using Tesla's station to battle the island's incredibly high electric bills, it's also part of a long-term Hawaii-state plan to be completely powered by renewable energy sources by 2045. Kauai has its own goal of using 70 percent renewable energy by 2030. With this project the island is getting closer to that goal and can now produce 100 percent of the energy it needs during high usage mid days and low loads via renewables during a brief period of time. The island state doesn't have the benefit of a massive grid like the mainland to pull electricity from sources hundreds of miles away. Instead each island has to take care of its own energy solutions. According to Tesla and the KIUC, the 45 acre Kapaia project will reduce the use of fossil fuels by 1.6 million gallons a year. You can view Tesla's Powerpack and solar farm on Kauai here.

7 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. You would think Hawaii would go Geothermal by Crashmarik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or OTEC

    Geothermal is something they have massive resources for. They are living on volcanoes after all.

    On OTEC they have the location, it supplies more than just power and they are doing the research

    https://www.makai.com/ocean-th...

  2. Wonderful, they are buying less fuel by bobbied · · Score: 1, Insightful

    BUT, they still need the full complement of diesel generators for those times when the sun doesn't shine enough to keep the batteries charged.

    This island is totally isolated and they have depended on diesel generators for a long time. Solar is a great option for them because diesel is a really expensive way to produce electricity. Shipping large quantities of fuel to an island is expensive. Solar is a great way to offset this unusually high cost by burning less fuel and batteries let you offset some of the excess solar power you get in the day time and shift it to other times when you need it. It makes sense to do this.. However...

    They will still need a full complement of diesel generators ready to pick up the load for when it is cloudy, and it IS cloudy from time to time there, sometimes for more than a day or more. Also, it will not be economical to go 100% solar because it will cost way to much for the storage capacity necessary to carry the load for the time required to be sure you get to the next sunny day, plus the extra capacity to recharge that storage. So, for those days they have a topical storm churning off the coast, their current diesel plants better be available or the lights will go out.

    Of course, if you don't mind going back to the stone age from time to time.... Feel free to depend on solar power for your 24hour needs.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:Wonderful, they are buying less fuel by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh no, so they have to leave the existing infrastructure in place and use it way less. That sounds horrible, and is definitely a reason to just continue shipping and burning diesel 24/7/365.

      Are you serious with this?

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:Wonderful, they are buying less fuel by dbIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

      BUT, they still need the full complement of diesel generators for those times when the sun doesn't shine enough to keep the batteries charged.

      I'm not sure that you've got much of a grasp on the idea of what a tropical island is. Even 70% cloud cover during a day of tropical sunlight would probably deliver far more power than the same panels where you are. Plus, monocultures suck - even those diesel generators currently used have other diesel generators to fall back on - maybe it's better for you if you think of the solar as the backup for the diesel since that is vunerable to anything that holds up fuel shipping to the islands no matter how many backups it has.

      Of course, if you don't mind going back to the stone age from time to time

      A bit of Freudian slip there I think - opposing the advance of technology just because "The Party" says Komrades like you should strive against the dread spirit of innovation.
      It's really funny, in the 1970s conservatives would have been right behind this sort of thing as a shining example of American greatness - but now you just want to drag everything down only because it looks like it could match the policy of another party.
      It's shit like that which is on the trajectory to the stone age.

  3. Just wondering... by rossdee · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why doesn't Hawaii use geothermal?

  4. Re:It'll never work by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1, Insightful

    There is a kernel of seriousness to this: the problem with Hawaiian solar is that there just isn't enough acreage on Kauai, Maui, Molokai and Oahu that you can pave over with solar collectors without it ruining the environmental esthetics. It's not Nevada, where there are large flat, dry areas that nobody cares about. The Big Island has the same geothermal potential as Iceland, but that possibility has already been howled down on the same grounds of vague territorial sacredness that is currently being used to drive the astronomers out of the state.

    You can't build infrastructure in Hawaii. Those pricey diesel generators will be belching carbon forever.

  5. Re:makes sense for resource poor areas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I saw Kauai's power generation plant. It's located in Port Allen. They barge diesel to the island to power big motors to turn the generators (I think there are 3 or 4 of them). The plant sends power along the highway all the way to the North End (Princeville). It's quite simple but as you mention, pretty arcane.

    "arcane". I don't think this word means what you think it does.

    You probably meant "archaic".