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JAMM AQUINO / 2024
Rows of solar panels soak up sunlight at Kupono Solar Farm in Ewa Beach on June 13, 2024.
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We’ve been hearing more and more in the past couple of years about battery backup for intermittent solar. No matter how far battery technology progresses, they will always need lots of land, replacement and — for 100% reliability — unimaginable costs. Under the most optimistic lithium battery cost projections, just two weeks of 100% backup power for Oahu would cost about $500 billion and occupy 5 square miles. Even the wildest projections for sodium batteries would only reduce that cost to about $50 billion and 4 square miles.
Bear in mind, the backup currently provided by Oahu’s fossil fuel generators is effectively endless.
So why are the State Energy Office and University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization not reporting on the prospective costs and land requirements to meet Oahu’s growing demand with batteries for typical sunless periods in 2045, when we aim to be 100% renewable? What’s the plan if not batteries?
Brian Barbata
Kailua

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