HONOLULU (KHON2) — Does the future look bright for Hawaiʻi’s electricity?
A new report from the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization, also known as UHERO, analyzed the costs and steps that need to be taken as Hawaiian Electric fully transitions to clean power.
‘Worsened noticeably’: UHERO forecasts Hawaiʻi’s economic outlook
UHERO discovered the following three findings were consistent across testing:
- Cheaper solar and battery deployment is the biggest economic lever Hawaiʻi has
- Under defensible current cost assumptions, Oʻahu does not need to build any new fuel-burning power plant
- Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS, are the largest non-solar economic lever — if the technology delivers on its cost trajectory
Costs, power plants
According to researchers, Oʻahu customers could save approximately $3.4 billion from 2027 to 2050 if the gap is closed between what solar in Hawaiʻi currently costs and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, projections.
When it comes to costs, the report found that “the cheapest overall system for Oʻahu over 2027-2050 builds no additional combined-cycle plant”. This remained true in every testing scenario involving oil prices, land use and solar and battery costs.
Other sources of energy
EGS work through extracting “heat from hot dry rock by drilling deep and engineering fluid flow through rock that doesn’t naturally conduct heat well,” UHERO said…