Americans don’t have to imagine what it’s like to live someplace that’s aggressively switching to 100% clean energy , where one in three people has rooftop solar , 15% of new cars are electric and giant batteries store power for use when the sun goes down.
They just have to go to Hawaii.
Hawaii pledged to be “Coal free by ’23,” and state law mandates 100% clean energy in just 21 years. Attaining that goal came closer this month as an enormous 185-megawatt battery near Honolulu hummed into full operation.
“If you’ve been to Hawaii, you’ve seen a renewable future – and it’s paradise,” said Jeff Mikulina director of the Hawai’i Climate Coalition and a board member of the Blue Planet Foundation.
The Kapolei Energy Storage facility is tucked away in eight acres of industrial land about 20 miles west of Honolulu. More than anything it looks like 158 white storage sheds, each about the size of a shipping container, neatly lined up on concrete pads.
These lithium iron phosphate batteries can hold 185 megawatts of power, enough to power 17% of the island of O’ahu for three hours.