10/27/19 #kihei
Wednesday afternoon last week we met with Hawaii Pacific Solar (HPS) at our office to hear about potential locations for a new solar farm being considered.

At KCA we were very pleased to be contacted by Tricia Rohlfing who asked if we would be open to some preliminary discussion. We do our best to meet with any and all entities with potential projects in our district, but have limitations.

In fairness, Innergex did also approach KCA more than once about their project above Maui Meadows, but lack of volunteers forced us to say no at that time.

But last week we met with Tricia, as well as HPS President Bob Johnston, both Maui residents of the Lahaina based company https://hawaiipacificsolar.com/

They advised they are working on proposals to Maui Electric for solar farms that would be located in Kihei. These proposals are being submitted in response to MECO’s recent Request for Proposals (RFP). They advised selection of any of their projects is not assured, but they wanted to inform us of plans and seek our input early in the process,.

Almost a year ago, we participated in the blessing of their solar farm in central Kihei – https://gokihei.org/environment/kenyon-energy-blessing-of-new-solar-farm-above-r-t-park-in-central-kihei – which was almost completely out of public view. We understand their two new proposals would be the same. One is mauka of this existing site and the other is a short distance South up on ranch land.

We truly appreciate this proactive step, and by posting this report we hope to keep our membership and greater community aware and informed. Having long -erm environmental positions, we see a great need for more renewable energy projects to provide for the growing electrical energy need of our community.

Bob Johnston