Renewable Energy Technology Assessments - Kauai Island Utility ...

Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative
Renewable Energy Technology Assessments
3.0 Renewable Energy Technology
Options
capacity factor. The land in this area is owned by state, federal, and private owners and is
zoned primarily as agricultural or urban land.
It is interesting to note that the land requirements for solar are very reasonable
compared to the requirements for other resources. For example, to supply the same
amount of energy, a power plant fueled with banagrass would require crop production on
over 20,000 acres. Further, oil palm would need to be grown on around 60,000 acres to
generate the same energy from biodiesel. Conversely, solar is still several times more
costly per kilowatt hour than these options.
Of the suggested regions on the island for solar, Barking Sands has the greatest
solar radiation resource coupled with favorable conditions for a large scale PV facility.
Further monitoring would be necessary before more accurate generating capacity and
design characteristics could be determined.
Given that the solar resource is so large, in the near term, developable solar
potential is more limited by the manufacturing capacity of PV module suppliers and the
development of suitable energy storage technologies to handle the intermittent output of
the resource. Considering these factors, the table below outlines the potential for solar
PV on Kauai.
Year Energy,
GWh
Table 3-27. Developable Potential from Solar Photovoltaics.
Capacity,
MW
3 8.8 5
5 35 20
Notes
Constrained by technology supplier ability to provide
product
10 53 30 Constrained by intermittency issues
20 > 500 > 285 Sufficient potential to supply all of Kauai’s electricity
3.7.2 Solar Thermal
Solar thermal technologies convert the sun’s energy to productive use by
capturing heat. Early developments in solar thermal technology focused on heating water
for domestic use. Advances have expanded the applications of solar thermal to high
magnitude energy collection and power conversion on a utility scale. Numerous solar
thermal technologies have also been developed over the past three decades as potential
sources of renewable power generation. The leading technologies currently include
parabolic trough, parabolic dish, power tower (central receiver), and solar chimney.
21 March 2005 3-62 Black & Veatch