Kipu Kai gets power from nature
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
KIPU KAI, Kaua'i — One of the state's oldest solar photovoltaic systems has been knocked around by a hurricane and challenged by salt spray. But it has long since paid for itself and continues to generate power in this remarkable spot.
Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
It may keep doing so until this coastal valley becomes state property.
Solar expert Will Hartzell, left, and Kupu Kai ranch manager Bobby Ferreira maintain the solar photovoltaic system that provides power to the remote ranch. The system survived even Hurricane Iniki.
Kipu Kai's late owner, Jack Waterhouse, left the land to the public on the death of his last surviving nephew. His heirs run a ranch upon it until that happens.
The site is an isolated, beautiful semi-circular valley that faces southeast. Its coast is alternating limestone headlands and white sand beaches.
Amid its isolation and rugged beauty, a thread of technology helps keep it running. The cluster of barns and houses at the headquarters of the 1,138-acre ranch is punctuated with satellite dishes and photovoltaic arrays that convert the sun's light into electricity.
Kipu Kai ranch specializes in raising breeding bulls. It is also a favorite movie location. Both "Six Days, Seven Nights" and the "Jurassic Park" movies feature Kipu Kai scenery.
Waterhouse had hoped the valley would be kept in agriculture as a research farm and as a home to endangered species. Native and endangered species are common here, including the Hawaiian goose, duck, gallinule and stilt, and Hawaiian monk seals regularly haul out on the beach.
Kipu Kai lies entirely surrounded by the Ha'upu Range mountains. The only access is via a steep, one-lane road over a pass. A single phone line crosses the pass.
A 2-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system was installed in 1988 to help ease the ranch's power problems. In those days, twin 15-kilowatt diesel generators ran 24 hours a day for lights and other power uses, but mostly for refrigeration.
One of the key refrigeration functions is keeping cold vaccines and other medicine for the cattle, according to ranch manager Bobby Ferreira.
The Kipu Kai solar panels were initially installed on a tracking system that followed the sun across the sky. Once the panels were operating, the ranch only needed to use one generator a few hours each day.
The power — either from the solar panels or the generator — charges a giant bank of batteries.
When a refrigerator cycles on or someone turns on a light or a computer, a set of Trace inverters automatically converts the direct current of the batteries to the alternating current used by most household lights and electronics.
• Maui rancher Lindy Sutherland, who oversees Kipu Kai Ranch as operating trustee, will discuss the solar and diesel power system May 16-17 at the Hawai'i Bioenergy Conference at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort on Kaua'i. • For information on the conference, call Garden Island Resource Conservation and Development at (808) 246-0091.
In 1992, Hurricane Iniki severely damaged the solar system and the tracking system, although the surviving panels kept generating power.
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"This place was one of the only places on the island that had electricity," said Will Hartzell, a solar expert who is president of Honolulu-based Safe Water Systems and the ranch's photovoltaic consultant.
The solar system was rebuilt as a 2.5-kilowatt array after the hurricane without the tracker. Panels are bolted down to a concrete foundation.
Despite rampant corrosion from salt spray, the system saves fuel. Ferreira said the savings — from running diesel generators only four hours a day, down from 24 hours a day — are dramatic enough that the system paid for the hurricane improvements in a little more than three years.
The system has benefited from advances in alternative energy technology. For instance, when it first went in, the inverters caused flickering lights and problems for electronic equipment. The new inverters are much friendlier to the equipment, Ferreira said.
