State renews Maui windfarm lease another 25 years

KAHULUI (HawaiiNewsNow) — The Kaheawa Wind Farm has been generating renewable energy for the past 20 years on Maui.

On Friday, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources extended that for another 25 years.

Kaheawa Wind Power 1 covers about 200 acres of state land in the Kaheawa Pastures area of West Maui. It churns out enough power for about 17,000 homes on the Valley Isle each year.

The new 25-year lease caps the farm at the 20 wind turbines it already operates and requires them to upgrade the equipment.

“(Kaheawa) is proposing to make a major investment in Maui in the order of tens of millions of dollars to refurbish the facility in exactly the same configuration,” a company representative told the BLNR during its meeting in Kahului. “This is the type of investment that helps secure a clean energy future for Maui.”

Kaheawa will pay the state $300,000 a year or 3.5% of annual gross revenue, whichever is higher, for the first ten years of the lease. After that, the rent will be reappraised.

The board is also requiring Kaheawa to post a $33 million bond so the state isn’t stuck with the bill for removing the turbines when the time comes to decommission the project.

“The case in point I see is the Apollo project at South Point that for probably 15 to 20 years had the towers that were continuing to rust,” board member Riley Smith said.

Hawaii now has eight commercial wind farms with more than 130 turbines.

The state has encouraged the renewable energy source, despite President Trump’s longtime opposition.

Maui’s wind farms produce about a quarter of the Valley Isle’s energy.

“It is for future generations,” a board member said. “So we’re not going to be here, but it’s for our grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the generations in the future.”

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