Boston-based First Wind and Hawaiian Electric Company have received approval from the Public Utilities Commission to move forward with the largest wind energy project in Hawaii. The project is expected to generate as much as 2.3 megawatts of electricity that will be sold to the electric company at a fixed price for the next 20 years.
Hawaii is the nation's most oil-dependent state, importing petroleum to fill about 90% of its energy needs. On Monday, December 12, 2011, Science Applications International Corporation, or SAIC, announced that the State's Public Utilities Commission had funded another $66 million dollars of SAIC's contract to serve as the Administrator of the Energy Efficiency Program, aimed at assisting Hawaii residents and businesses to become more energy efficient.
Major construction of the First Wind (operating as Kawailoa Wind) project will begin in 2012. It is hoped that when completed, the project will generate enough electricity to power 14,500 homes, and to alleviate as must as 5-10% of the island's electrical power load.
