Hawaii Electric Light Company Seeks to Increase its Geothermal Energy Portfolio
Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO) has announced plans to increase its geothermal energy portfolio.
The company will file a request with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission for a Geothermal Request for Proposals. Once approved, HELCO will seek proposals to add up to 50 MW of geothermal generation capacity on Hawaii Island. The company is also launching studies on the power grid to see what is needed to integrate more geothermal electricity.
This news comes nearly a year after geothermal energy developer Ormat Technologies, Inc. and HELCO came to terms for the delivery of an additional 8 MW of geothermal power from Ormat's Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) facility. Ormat expanded PGV, growing the plant's generation capacity from 30 MW to 38 MW.
Commenting on the company's announcement HELCO preside Jay Ignacio said, "we plan to move forward to add more geothermal energy to our already considerable portfolio of renewable energy resources.”
HELCO, which is a subsidiary of the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO), delivers the most electricity sourced from renewables out of all three HECO utilities. The company claims that 41.9% of the electricity it sells to 80,695 customers is generated from renewable energy -- a large portion of which is geothermal.
Image Credit: grantzprice via Flickr
Joseph Baker is a freelance writer living in Vancouver BC. His areas of focus include renewable energy, sustainability and climate change.
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