KAILUA-KONA — Nearly $2 million will be coming to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority as part of a U.S. Department of Energy program funding efforts to improve desalination technologies using solar power.
The Hawaii SunShot Desal Project, located at NELHA’s Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park in Kailua-Kona, will be one of 14 programs throughout the country to get money from the federal agency’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.
NELHA Executive Director Gregory Barbour said the Hawaii project will be the world’s largest forward osmosis, solar thermal desalination plant.
The Hawaii SunShot Desal Project is focused on advancing the viability of solar-powered forward osmosis by reducing the water’s unit cost 40 percent less than current state-of-the art technology.
The project will include commissioning an existing 2-megawatt solar thermal array at the HOST Park and connecting it to a 130,000-gallons-per-day forward osmosis system, delivering the desalinated water to Cyanotech, a commercial customer at the HOST Park, for use in the commercial aquaculture production of microalgae, Barbour said.
Barbour said the funds for the project won’t only get new desalination technology to market at a lower cost, they also will make it possible to use the old Keahole Solar Power site and produce a “significant amount of water for agricultural use,” thereby freeing up the existing potable water supply for new projects at the facility.
“This is another example of the exceptional value that our support and investment into the critical infrastructure of this technology park in West Hawaii has generated,” said Gov. David Ige in a press release. “We will continue to pursue federal funding to allow NELHA to maintain its competitive advantage and give the community an asset found in very few places in the world.”
In total, the 14 projects will receive $21 million for innovative solar-thermal desalination-related projects, said the Energy Department, focusing on an array of challenges solar-powered desalination faces, including low-cost solar energy collection and storage as well as developing integrated solar-thermal desalination systems.
The projects are expected to last up to three years. The grants are awarded as cooperative agreements that require a cost share of between 20 percent and 50 percent.
The Energy Department noted it’s not just municipal water production that can benefit from desalination technologies. Agriculture and industrial processes also are considered attractive applications, as is the purification of water produced as a result of energy development such as oil and gas extraction.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, welcomed the announcement, saying the project combines the pressing issues of water shortages and climate change.
“With this funding, we have the chance to develop desalination methods that are sustainable and even profitable,” he said in a press release. “I’m hopeful that this project will lead to more innovation in this space.”
Email Cameron Miculka at cmiculka@westhawaiitoday.com.