Clearway dedicates 39-MW solar project with battery in Hawaii

Clearway Energy Group on Thursday inaugurated its Mililani Solar I plant, a 39-MW solar array combined with a 156-MWh battery storage system, in Hawaii.

The USD-140-million (EUR 135m) project is the first utility-scale solar and battery storage power plant on Hawaii's Oahu Island. It adds to three solar facilities previously commissioned by the company on the island.

Located in Mililani Agricultural Park, the new installation will help bolster the grid when the state is shutting down its last coal plant in September, the developer noted.

Clearway has a second solar and storage plant under construction in Waiawa, which will have 36 MW of solar capacity and a 144-MWh battery. Its five solar facilities on the island totalling 185 MW will serve Hawaiian Electric’s grid.

Mililani I Solar is now supplying power to Hawaiian Electric’s grid at a cost of USD 0.09 per kWh. It is the first of nine clean energy projects that the utility will bring online over the next two years on Oahu. Most will be generating electricity at one-third the cost of oil, it said.

Finland’s Wartsila Corp (HEL:WRT1V) was the battery provider for the project. Moss was in charge of construction.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.967)

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