By PETER SUR
By PETER SUR
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Hu Honua Bioenergy took another big step toward the start of operations with the announcement Monday that it has signed a power purchase agreement with Hawaii Electric Light Co.
The 20-year agreement would provide the Big Island with 21.5 megawatts of energy created from the burning of biomass, primarily eucalyptus trees planted along the North Hilo and Hamakua coasts. That’s enough to provide 10 percent of the island’s energy, or by HELCO’S calculation, enough to power 14,000 homes.
The purchase price remains confidential pending approval from the Public Utilities Commission, said Hu Honua spokeswoman Barbara Hastings.
“The PUC will get that (price) first. It will be filed with the PUC,” Hastings said. “At current oil prices, it’s below what the cost of generating electricity by a fossil fuel plant on Hawaii Island would be.”
Pepeekeo Sugar Mill operated as the coal-burning Hilo Coast Processing Co. until 2004. Since then, actual construction work on the plant has not begun, although the company is in negotiations with Hawaiian Dredging Construction to renovate the facility.
The grounds of the plant are being cleaned up of trash, old equipment, overgrowth and coal piles left after former operations, Hastings said. Old pipes are being dug up and retrenched, and some overhead power lines will be laid in conduits in those trenches.
Company officials tout the creation of 80 to 100 jobs during the refurbishment phase and 28 to 30 jobs when the facility begins operation, plus 100 jobs indirectly created in the timber and related energies.
The plant is expected to process 260,000 tons of biomass and displace 250,000 barrels of oil every year. Operations are expected 18 months after refurbishment begins.
The steady progress on a plant has come despite the strident objections of neighbors who have fought the plant through the permitting process.
Supporters focus on the jobs and renewable energy aspect of the plant. Opponents, accuse Hu Honua of “greenwashing” its environmental impacts by estimating the annual emissions to be below the 250-ton cap for “minor” sources of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide releases. Hu Honua estimates emissions of 246.4 tons per year.
Carol Gill of Colorado, who owns property in Pepeekeo, is one of those opponents.
“My understanding is the energy is not needed in the first place,” she said, and questioned whether a long-term supply of biomass exists on the island. “The jobs that are high-level at all are usually filled from the outside.”
Hu Honua CEO Jon Silva said in a statement that the biomass-to-energy process is “cleaner than fossil fuel, is efficient and makes use of existing sustainable biomass on the island.”
HELCO President Jay Ignacio said the addition of Hu Honua to the power grid would bring the island’s portfolio of renewable energy to more than 50 percent.
Negotiations with timber firms to supply the plant are ongoing, Hastings said.