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Solar farm on University of Hawaiʻi land comes online in West Oʻahu

FILE - An aerial photo of the solar panels on 66 acres of agricultural land near UH West Oʻahu in Kapolei. (Feb. 15, 2023)
Office of Gov. Josh Green
FILE - An aerial photo of the solar panels on 66 acres of land near UH West Oʻahu. (Feb. 15, 2023)

Another solar-plus-storage project has come online on Oʻahu.

The facility, developed by AES Hawaiʻi, is on 66 acres of open University of Hawaiʻi agricultural land north of the UH West Oʻahu campus in Kapolei.

According to Hawaiian Electric, the AES West Oʻahu project can produce an amount of energy equivalent to 750,000 barrels of oil over its lifetime.

It was originally scheduled to start commercial operations in September 2022. Like many of the state's utility-scale energy projects, it experienced significant delays.

The next large-scale solar farm scheduled to plug into Oʻahu's grid is Kūpono Solar. As of last month, it was on track for completion in mid-May.

Savannah Harriman-Pote is the energy and climate change reporter. She is also the lead producer of HPR's "This Is Our Hawaiʻi" podcast. Contact her at sharrimanpote@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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