COURTESY HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC CO. A computer simulation offers a glimpse at what a wind farm might look like between Kapolei and Nanakuli.

HECO wants big
windmills at Kahe

The goal is to have 20 percent
of isle electricity generated
by renewable sources

Hawaiian Electric Co. has picked the ridges above its Kahe Power Plant as the best place on Oahu to put a $70 million electricity-generating wind farm.

HECO would like to erect 24 to 26 300-foot-tall wind turbines there to generate up to 39 megawatts of power -- enough to power 10,000 homes -- on Campbell Estate grazing land between the old Nike missile site and Camp Timberline.

The site has consistent winds of at least 15 mph, and land is accessible and available, HECO said.

The only other two sites on Oahu that meet those criteria are Kaena Point -- unworkable because it is too far from transmission lines and has cultural and ecological significance -- and Kahuku, now under Army control, said Karl Stahlkopf, HECO chief technology officer.

If either HECO or a private company were to build a wind farm at Kahe, it would help the state reach its goal of having 20 percent of its electricity generated from renewable sources by the year 2020, Stahlkopf said.

The downside, Stahlkopf admitted, is, "They're big. They'll sit on a ridge, and people are going to see them."

That push-pull between the thrill of renewable energy and the worry that the 300-foot-tall turbines that generate it are unsightly will be on the table at community meetings HECO will hold next month.

HECO's announcement of the July 19-21 meetings says community input will be important.

"I think wind power is a terribly important thing. ... I support wind power," Kioni Dudley, a member of the Makakilo/Kapolei Neighborhood Board, said yesterday.

"It sure can be ugly, though. So if we can find a place where they can put them and we don't see them," that would be best, Dudley said. "We've got to find a way to not uglify our island."

Maeda Timson, chairwoman of the Makakilo/Kapolei Neighborhood Board, and Todd Apo, the City Council member who represents Leeward Oahu, said yesterday they have similar feelings.

"I'd say the community is very open, because we don't know enough about it," Timson said. "And we're very interested in what it would look like ... if it's going to be noisy."

Leeward Oahu residents, who lost the battle last year to move the island's landfill to another area, are leery of yet another public project in their back yard, Apo said. "I think people want to hear a little bit more and really understand" why a wind farm needs to be here, he said.

"Oahu, with 80 percent of the state's population, doesn't have very many good wind sites," Stahlkopf said. "Kahe is the largest and best."

If HECO proceeds with preparations to put a wind farm there, an environmental assessment will have to be done, and permits sought and received.

The utility would also have to decide whether to do the project itself or with a private partner and sell it the power.

Stahlkopf said the following wind farms operating or under construction on Maui and the Big Island have that kind of arrangement:

>> A 30-megawatt wind farm approved at Kaheawa Pastures, above McGregor Point, between Kahului and Lahaina.

>> A 14-megawatt addition to the existing 7-megawatt Apollo Co. Kamaoa wind farm at South Point, Big Island.

>> A 10.5-megawatt wind farm at Hawi in the Big Island's Kohala district.

Wind energy is the most cost-effective renewable energy, and it is growing exponentially on the mainland and across the world, Stahlkopf said.

Besides, he added, "The governor and the Legislature made it very clear they are proponents of renewable energy, with a state goal of 20 percent renewable by 2020."

HECO's July community meetings Hawaiian Electric Co. will hold three community meetings next month to propose building an electricity-generating wind farm mauka of its Kahe Power Plant between Kapolei and Nanakuli. The meetings will be from 7 to 9 p.m. on: >> July 19 at the Marriott Ihilani Resort Ocean Ballroom I, 92-1001 Olani St., Ko Olina. >> July 20 at Kapolei High School cafeteria, 91-5007 Kapolei Parkway, Kapolei. >> July 21 at Old Nanaikapono Elementary School Cafeteria, 69-195 Farrington Highway, Nanakuli. For more information: Contact HECO at 543-7780. For wind maps of Hawaii: Go to www.heco.com and click on "renewable energy."