Keahole Solar Power’s Grand Vision

Kona is home to the worlds elite. From the World famous Ironman Triathlon where the best athletes compete to Michael Dell’s Hualalai Resort, and Charles Schwab’s Palamanui mixed-use project where the world’s wealthiest relax and find residence, Kona is the place to be. But with new development comes new challenges for energy. Sopogy’s MicroCSP technology is a perfect blend of Hawaiian technology with low-key elegant yet robust appearance and high energy efficiencies. MicroCSP is a technology who’s time has come for Kona and Keahole Solar Power is the home of Hawaii’s and the World’s first MicroCSP solar farm at Holaniku.

Keahole Solar Power company is a local solar company formed by Big Island native Darren T. Kimura. The company began its work in Kona in 2007 based on an idea that solar energy could be used to do more than just make hot water.

Utilities across the country (including Hawaiian Electric) burn fossil fuel to create process heat which they use to turn turbines that produce electricity. Darren’s idea was to create electricity similarly but use the sun and stop the burning of oil. This idea would reduce Hawaii’s dependence on imported oil and atmsopheric pollution.

The first attempts identified that hot water solar panels were unable to achieve working process heat temperatures so the team kept at it. After four years of trial and error, new technology designs and testing all over the State of Hawaii, Darren and his team developed a concentrating panel that worked effectively. They then moved their pilot project over to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA) and continued testing. The final product is a concentrating solar panel which uses mirrors to focus the energy of the sun creating process heat in a collector package able to protect the panel against storms and Hawaii’s harsh environment.

Keahole Solar Power’s Holaniku at Keahole Point is the first large scale project in the world to use Sopogy’s proprietary solar panels. Because of its unique hot and sunny conditions Kona was selected as its home.