Kaʻū News Briefs Oct. 27, 2024

An artist's rendering of how two of the proposed solar farms would look from a drone if they were to be built as planned in Ranchos. 17 such projects, each covering three acres, are planned to be built among existing homes throughout the west side 

of the subdivision. The rendering is by John Fretz, a graphic artist who lives in Ranchos.

PUC STILL CONSIDERS APPROVING INDUSTRIAL SOLAR IN OV NEIGHBORHOODS. The eight-year-long fight over the proposed construction of an industrial-scale solar power generating facility in Ocean View took a new twist in October when a state Public Utilities Commission Hearings Officer released a draft of his report. It recommends that the solar project be allowed and that the PUC decide if the project is "in the public interest."    

    The project would allow 17 three-acre houselots to be fenced in and covered with solar panels. They would be built on lots intended for housing. The energy produced would be sold to Hawaiian Electric at 25c per kWh - nearly triple the current market price. Homes could be adjacent to industrial solar lots stripped of trees and bulldozed  The project involves a series of investors buying up and selling the batch of houselots for one solar project, the energy to be sold to Hawaiian Electric.
    The complaint was filed with the Public Utilities Commission in August 2016 by Peter and Annie Bosted, who live in Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos, below Highwy 11. Many home and lot owners there joined to launch an opposition, which is documented by a petition, public testimony at community meetings and numerous letters to the PUC. Opponents contend that the solar would come with a high price for the electricity sold to Hawaiian Electric, and with degradation of family neighborhoods that would be turned into a mix of housing and industrial.
    "I find it mind-boggling" is the recent comment by Ranchos resident Bob Werner. "I have been following this case since it began." He said the recent PUC report "is based on a truly shocking and disturbing misunderstanding of the complaint. Many important points have been ignored, twisted, or apparently misunderstood.
    "Over a year ago the Bosteds filed follow-up briefs, amounting to about 40 pages, which detailed the case complete with evidence, citations, rules of law and everything necessary for the commission to come to a well reasoned decision," said Werner. "Now, by law, the Bosteds have less than two weeks to file 'exceptions' and ask for them to be corrected; this after it has been in the hands of the Commission for over a year. For them it will be like picking up the pieces of Humpty Dumpty and gluing the case back together again with more documentation. The way it has been completely changed is staggering and responding to all the misinterpretations and faulty reasoning will be extremely difficult in such a short time."
    Werner, a retired elected county evaluator, also said, "The Hearings Officer complains that he was given a very narrow task and that many issues were outside his scope." The Hearings Officer is recommending that the Commission definitively determine whether such projects as the one proposed at Ocean View are in the public interest.
    Last year the Hawai'i Supreme Court addressed proposed solar projects conceived years ago that don't necessarily result in a lower price for electricity and are far behind the current approach to alternative energy. The Court stated that, with regard to energy projects conceived decades ago, "yesterday's good enough has become today's unacceptable" and named numerous factors not in the public interest. The Court added, "The PUC was under no obligation to evaluate an energy project conceived of in 2012 the same way in 2022. Indeed, doing so would have betrayed its constitutional duty."

    New solar projects produce electricity. at about 9 cents per kWh with batter backup. The propsed project is expected to generate higher prices without battery backup, said opponents.