Holaniku, the Big Island’s largest solar farm, will begin providing power to the Hawaii Electric Light Co. grid in a few weeks once some final contract items are complete, said Darren Kimura, founder and chief executive officer of Sopogy Inc. and Keahole Solar Power LLC.

“The energy is being mixed into the HELCO grid so any savings are blended,” he said when asked if Holaniku will produce enough power to reduce consumers’ power bills. “The goal over time, however, is for us to get enough solar energy produced from this and many other solar farms so we could eventually see a positive impact on the power bill.”

During Thursday’s blessing, dedication and activation of Holaniku, Kimura proudly gazed out at the more than 1,000 solar collectors on 4 acres at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. With the flip of a switch, each of the half-barrel-shaped devices came to life slowly, turning over from a resting position, their sensors tracking the sun.

The 500-kilowatt-capacity solar farm can power more than 250 homes, which would result in the offset of 6,600 tons of carbon emissions over 30 years, and eliminate the need to import more than 2,000 barrels of oil annually, Kimura said.

“Hawaii is 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuels,” he said. “Using Sopogy’s technology, we efficiently convert our abundant solar energy to create power, keeping our dollars in our local communities, creating high paying jobs for locals and helping Hawaii become more self-sufficient and sustainable.”

A major milestone for Kimura is that the technology was made and tested in Hawaii, but can be exported. It was designed to be installed and serviced by local contractors without specialty training,

Gov. Linda Lingle called the activation of Holaniku “a proud day.” She said the state is paying $5 billion to $7 billion annually to purchase imported oil and it needs to reduce its dependence to achieve an economically secure future. She also praised Kimura and the Sopogy team for their innovation, as well as helping reach the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative goal of having 70 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2030.

However, Lingle said new technology wasn’t enough, claiming regulatory framework and healthy utilities are key components to get where the state needs to be. She mentioned reforms like a price guarantee, or feed-in tariff, for electricity produced by renewable energy sources and decoupling, which takes separates revenues from sales of electricity.

Click Photo to Enlarge Darren T. Kimura, CEO and founder of Sopogy Inc., welcomes Gov. Linda Lingle as she takes the podium to make a few remarks to a crowd gathered for the dedication and blessing of Holaniku at Keahole Point. – Brad Ballesteros | Special To West Hawaii Today

Holaniku — named for a location in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands said to have everything needed for mankind to survive — is Hawaii’s first concentrating solar power project and the first time microconcentrating solar panels have been used to produce power, Kimura said.

Through mirrors, optics and an integrated sun tracker, the project’s panels achieve higher efficiencies than conventional flat plate solar panels. Collectors reflect and concentrate sun energy, as well as heat liquids to steam temperature. Heat can produce steam to turn turbines connected to electrical generators. The system also uses a thermal energy storage buffer that allows energy to be produced during cloudy periods, storms, rain and flying debris. It can shift energy produced from the day to evening, Kimura said.

“Helping the local engineers and contractors become familiar with this technology required some time. We’ve been testing technology in Kona since 2002 and many of the early solar collectors didn’t quite work well enough for one reason or another,” he said. “It all finally began coming together in 2006 and we were able to overcome these issues through the vision and tenacity of our team who never gave up and kept the faith, even in those difficult early days.”

This roughly $15 million project was funded by Sopogy and local investors. Sopogy seeks to eventually expand the solar farm and has potential plans for the project to get up to 10 times larger. It would also like similar solar farms to be built along the Kona Coast, Kimura said.