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Saturday, November 11, 2000



A first for Hawaii:
Whale sanctuary’s
surplus solar power
is sold to utility

Electricity from a rooftop
photovoltaic unit pays 30% of the
organization's electric bill


By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

KIHEI, Maui -- On top of a building with a wall mural of dolphins and whales in south Maui, a solar energy system has been developed that will -- for the first time in the state -- sell electricity to a public utility.

The roof contains solar panels that provide power for the offices of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary on weekdays.

On weekends, when the offices are closed, the system feeds excess electrical power into a grid to Maui Electric Co. Ltd.

The organization is credited for the power it gives on the weekends, which reduces its monthly electric bill.

Earl Ifuku, a manager at Maui Electric, said the savings -- about $86 a month, or 30 percent of the sanctuary's electric bill -- fluctuates seasonally based on sun exposure.

The system is one way the utility is looking at reducing the demand for electricity and for fossil fuels.


By Gary T. Kubota, Star-Bulletin
Claire Cappelle, liaison for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback
Whale National Marine Sanctuary, sits on the roof of its
education center, where solar panels are mounted. In the
background are the agency's Kihei offices.



Maui Electric officials said recent innovations have made possible the development of small-scale photovoltaic systems. Ifuku said he looks forward to the eventual mass production of small-scale photovoltaic units.

Utilities have an easier time interconnecting with photovoltaic systems, and the cost of equipment for a system has decreased considerably, to about $30,000 from more than $1 million in 1970, Ifuku said.

In its project at the sanctuary, Maui Electric converted a 1.3-kilowatt domestic photovoltaic system to a small-scale system producing 2.8 kilowatts.

Besides the utility, a number of other groups contributed toward the demonstration project, including the Natural Energy Renewable Laboratory, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Upcountry Electric.

Ifuku said the system is designed to operate on its own, and Maui Electric officials have agreed to maintain the equipment for a year before turning over the ownership to the sanctuary in June. Sanctuary officials have integrated the solar energy model into an educational tour of their facilities.

A story board in the sanctuary's educational center explains the way direct current from the solar panels is converted to alternating current before being fed into the grid to Maui Electric.

Sanctuary liaison Claire Cappelle said the reaction from the community has been good.

"I've had people stop me in the community," she said. "They're interested in doing it themselves."

Ifuku said Maui Electric has a standard form that people may use to develop a small-scale solar system to sell electricity.

He said while the sale of electricity would need state Public Utility Commission approval, the utility has worked out an administrative procedure to allow Maui Electric to buy electricity from solar-powered systems of less than 10 kilowatts.

"Because it's a standardized form, it should be an expedited approval," he said.



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