Oahu offshore wind farm plan faces criticism

A company partially backed by the French government is working to develop an offshore wind project on the island of Oahu as the federal agency prepares for a possible auction of ocean leases for such use in 2028.

Aukahi Energy LLC, a joint venture that includes a subsidiary of French utility giant EDF Group, has publicly shared in recent months its vision of placing 22 to 30 floating wind turbines — each taller than a football field — between Oahu and Molokai. They would provide about 25% of Oahu’s electricity, at an estimated cost of more than $1.8 billion.

The company, which also includes Oregon-based Progression Energy, wants to site the 400- to 450-megawatt project at the northern end of the Kaiwi Channel, with the closest points to Oahu being about 12 nautical miles at Makapuu Point, Waimanalo and Lanikai. The northwest tip of Molokai would also be about 12 nautical miles away.

Meanwhile, the federal agency that manages leases in federal waters extending 3 nautical miles from shore announced in April that such a lease could potentially be put up for auction in 2028.

However, the area for which the lease agreement is to be concluded has not yet been designated, and the auction will be preceded by public meetings.

Hawaii has set a goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045. Some state leaders have long believed that offshore wind could help achieve that goal.

Hawaiian Electric, the regulated utility serving Oahu, had a long-term renewable energy integration plan approved earlier this year by the state Public Utilities Commission. The plan includes a preference for 400 megawatts of offshore wind power serving Oahu by 2035.

At the end of 2023, renewable energy accounted for 29.6% of Hawaii’s electricity generation on Oahu, while imported crude oil accounted for 70.4%.

Renewable energy is good for the environment, but it often costs less — sometimes a third as much as oil-fired power in Hawaii, which has the highest electricity rates in the country.

At a cost, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated in 2021 that offshore wind on Oahu could cost 5 to 11 cents per kilowatt-hour over the next few years, compared with 9 to 12 cents for solar projects with battery storage already in operation. The cost of energy from solar and wind projects is typically flat, while the price of the oil used to produce the power fluctuates. In September, it was 17 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential customers on Oahu, according to Hawaiian Electric.

The Hawaii State Office of Energy has long advocated for a balanced portfolio of renewable energy sources to reduce overreliance on any one source.

Mark Glick, the energy director who leads the office, said in a statement that Oahu’s land restrictions on renewable energy projects mean that if offshore wind development doesn’t happen, importing renewable fuels would likely become an alternative.

“However, all solutions must provide tangible value to the communities in which the projects are implemented and be aligned with the values ​​and expectations of the communities,” he added.

Aukahi is seeking public comment in part to explore concerns that could influence its decision to move forward with the plan.

So far, most of the feedback we have received has been very critical.

Kailua resident Gary Weller called Aukahi’s plan “crazy” after listening to the company’s presentation to the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board on Aug. 27, which came after a similar presentation to the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board on June 10.

“The last place in the world that anyone would want to see windmills in the ocean is right here,” Weller said during the Hawaii Kai meeting, which he attended via video conference with a background screen showing wind turbines in the ocean.

Weller also attended a July community meeting in Waimanalo where the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management presented its process for awarding ocean leases for wind projects. He said the reception to the meeting was overwhelmingly negative.

“That meeting,” Weller said in an interview, “turned into a really angry meeting where a lot of Hawaiians stood up and said, ‘How dare you come here and do this to our ocean? The ocean is part of our culture.’”

At one point, someone stood up and asked opponents of wind turbines off the coast of Oahu to raise their hands, according to Weller, who said, “The whole room stood up and raised their hands.”

State Rep. Gene Ward (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley) described the response to the Waimanalo town meeting as something like a “pitchforks and torches” display during a meeting in Hawaii Kai.

Hawaii Kai District Board Member Elizabeth Reilly suggested the board send a letter to Gov. Josh Green asking him to declare offshore wind farms inappropriate for Hawaii.

“This is not appropriate for the state of Hawaii,” she said during the meeting.

Malia Marquez predicted that if the Aukahi wind farm plan goes ahead, thousands of boats and kayaks would block the project, similar to what happened in 2019 when protesters, mostly Native Hawaiians, physically blocked construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea on the Hawaiian island to protect a site they consider sacred.

“I will bet my life on Kaiwi,” Marquez, who is Hawaiian, said at the meeting.

Some of the opponents of the Aukahi plan who spoke at the Hawaii Kai meeting were members of community organizations involved in protecting Oahu’s Kaiwi Coast from development, including the Ka Iwi Coalition, the Save Sandy Beach Coalition and the Livable Hawaii Kai Hui.

“The Ka Iwi Coalition has been fighting for over 50 years to keep Kaiwi open and free from development,” Ann Marie Kirk, a member of the group, said at the meeting.

Kirk also said the conservation effort extends to the 25-mile-wide Kaiwi Channel, which separates Oahu and Molokai. “The ocean is our wilderness,” she said. “We support alternative energy, but we don’t support this.”

The Hawaii Kai meeting also addressed issues related to the impact of hurricanes and tidal waves on turbines, and the impact of turbines and turbine anchor cables on wildlife.

Noe Kalipi, vice president of development at Progression, said during her presentation that Aukahi will need to assess and mitigate potentially significant impacts.

“We are in a period of exploration,” she said.

As for the visual impact of the company’s proposal, Kalipi said the turbines, if built, would be visible from Oahu and Molokai, but not to the same extent as the onshore turbines, which are located on Oahu, Hawaii Island and Maui.

“The wind offshore has less of an effect on proximity and visibility,” she said. “So it’s not right in front of us, but it’s very visible.”

Kalipi said the community feedback is part of a risk analysis the company is conducting to help decide whether to proceed with the project.

Ongoing Efforts Aukahi’s predecessor, Progression Hawaii Offshore Wind, had been exploring the possibility of such a project since about 2015, initially in partnership with former Hawaii Office of Energy Administrator Ted Peck.

At the time, Progression was pursuing a 400-megawatt project off the south coast of Oahu, but later moved its plans to windward waters after the U.S. Department of Defense objected to a south coast wind farm that it said would interfere with military training, combat readiness and national defense.

Kalipi said Aukahi has an agreement with the Department of Defense that allows the project to proceed at its current proposed location.

The developer’s next step in implementing its plan was to establish cooperation with EDF in 2018.

Paris-based EDF has about 41 million customers and is expected to generate revenue of $154 billion in 2023.

The French government-owned company does not operate any offshore wind farms, but is part of a joint venture with Shell New Energies US LLC that received federal approval in July for a two-phase project off the coast of New Jersey. The planned project, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, has a capacity of 2,800 megawatts, enough to power more than a million homes.

For the past 18 months, Aukahi also has been collecting wind and ocean data using a buoy placed at the proposed project site, and in October it paid $5.2 million for 9 acres of land in Kaneohe next to a Hawaiian Electric substation that would be used to connect the wind farm cables to Oahu’s power grid.

Still, Aukahi does not have an ocean lease from the federal government or any supply agreement with Hawaiian Electric.

Both developments are subject to competitive bidding, and at least two other companies have previously expressed interest in developing a wind farm off the coast of Oahu: Denmark-based Alpha Wind Energy and Norway-based Equinor ASA.

Hawaiian Electric expects to begin soliciting bids in mid-2025 for renewable energy projects that will have a long lead time and could collectively provide 2.2 gigawatt-hours of power to Oahu by 2040.

“Our (renewable energy integration) plans are designed to be flexible and allow for competitive bidding and community engagement to help us identify the best resource for the grid,” Hawaiian Electric spokesman Darren Pai said in a statement. “We know there are strong emotions about offshore wind, and that’s one reason the plan also included the possibility that it might never be developed, which could result in us pursuing potentially higher-cost alternatives.”

Federal Decisions BOEM, part of the Interior Department, is responsible for leasing federal waters for offshore wind. Its announcement in April that such a lease from Oahu could be auctioned in 2028 is intended to provide advance notice to stakeholders, including the public, and facilitate planning.

“BOEM reserves the right to modify this plan over the next five years; decisions regarding these potential lease sales — including whether to conduct a lease sale at all — have not yet been made,” the agency said in its announcement.

Part of the BOEM process will be to identify an area for consideration for leasing and gather public input before making a final selection.

If the auction is conducted, the winning bidder will be subject to BOEM approval of the construction and operating plan. The agency also typically conducts an environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The developer said final approval for the Atlantic Shores project comes after more than five years of engagement with stakeholders and more than 40 environmental studies.

In Hawaii, Kalipi said during a June presentation to the Waimanalo Borough Council that Aukahi asked BOEM to hold the oceanfront land lease auction in 2026 rather than 2028 to accommodate the multiple years needed for analysis, permitting and construction so operations could begin by 2035.