Dive Brief:
- Hawaiian Electric Co.’s plans to develop 240 MW of utility-scale solar appear to have hit a stumbling block. Two major projects have now dropped out, citing an inability to complete land negotiations before deadlines on power purchase agreements. Hunt Development Group is the most recent, announcing on Friday it was cancelling its planned 12 MW project in Kalaeloa.
- The utility has been attempting to negotiate 20-year agreements with both the solar projects, one backed by Hunt Development Group and the other by Gen-X Energy Development.
- Additionally, First Wind Solar Group has signaled concerns over the approval of its own wind farm, saying it needs approvals issued in early 2015 in order to take advantage of expiring tax credits.
Dive Insight:
Hunt Development Group is the latest solar provider to cancel a HECO project. Hunt Hawaii President Steve Colon told Pacific Business News, “we just ran out of time."
PBN reports that the issue is related to a historical analysis being done by the land's owners, the U.S. Navy. “The window on that expired. HECO said we needed to sign a [power purchase agreement], but we couldn’t get the land issues worked out," Colon told PBN. “We also looked at putting it on [Department of Hawaiian Home Lands land], but we ran out of time. Because of the timing of the tax credits, you had to have everything lined up. We just didn’t think we could get it done.”
HECO has estimated that the solar projects could help reduce generating costs by almost $26 million annually, with per-kWh prices of the new solar generation being about a third the price of existing resources.
