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Land Board
OKs Maui wind
power development

The turbines' 20-year total
fuel cost saving is estimated
at almost $76 million

By Gary T. Kubota
Maui correspondent

WAILUKU -- A proposal to develop 27 wind turbines on a West Maui mountain ridge has received approval from the state Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Board members gave a conservation district use permit to Zond Pacific Inc. after overwhelmingly favorable testimony and little opposition at a public meeting yesterday.

Zond official Keith Avery said the next step was to negotiate an easement with the state and to complete a purchase power agreement with Maui Electric Co.

Avery said he has a tentative price agreement with Maui Electric that would sell the power for less than the price of oil-generated power.

"The 20-year total fuel cost saving is estimated at almost $76 million," state business and economic director Seiji Naya said in a letter to the board.

"By keeping this money in Maui's economy, there will be collateral benefits in employment."

Land Board member Colbert Matsumoto wondered about the visual impact of the project.

Avery said that during the environmental impact study, Zond developed a computer model to determine the way the wind turbines would look on the ridge. Avery said the turbines, located about 3.5 miles mauka of Honoapiilani Highway in Maalaea, will not be visible from the highway. He said the turbines will be visible to people in Kihei from a distance of several miles.

A number of residents testified that while the 75-meter-high wind turbines will have a visual impact, their positive contribution to the environment is far greater.

Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, said wind turbines reduce the use of fossil fuel and reduce global warming.