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The proposed 60-megawatt solar farm in Central Maui would charge 8 cents per kilowatt hour -- the lowest in the state for renewable energy -- and the 15-MW solar facility on Ulupalakua Ranch land, 12 cents per kWh, according to contracts submitted by Hawaiian Electric Co. to the state Public Utilities Commission for review.
The utility announced Thursday the rates to be charged consumers (without a markup from Maui Electric Co., a subsidiary of HECO) for seven grid-scale with battery storage projects on Maui, Oahu and Hawaii island.
These prices are lower than current fossil-fuel generation, which is running about 15 cents per kWh. The two 2.87-MW industrial-scale solar projects in South and West Maui that went online last year are charging 11 cents per kWh while the two wind farms in Maalaea and in Kanaio are billing 12 cents per kWh.
Canadian-based Innergex Renewables USA is proposing a 15-MW solar and 60-megawatt-hour battery storage system on 150 to 200 acres of Ulupalakua Ranch land. It is calling its project Paeahu Solar.
Colorado-based AES Distributed Energy is proposing a 60-MW solar and 240-mWh battery project on as much as 500 acres of old Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. fields in Central Maui. The solar farm is called Kuihelani Solar.
The approximately 200,000 solar panels are slated for land to be leased from Alexander & Baldwin on the east side of Kuihelani Highway, south of the intersection of the highway and East Waiko Road, AES said.
The projects were the finalists in a procurement effort started in February, HECO said.