By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

Hawaiian Electric hopes to jump-start renewable energy production by working with companies interested in producing electricity from wind, solar, biomass and other renewable sources.

The company has given its new subsidiary, Renewable Hawai'i, $10 million, and is committed to providing more financial support as it develops projects that show promise, said Hawaiian Electric president Michael May.

"We believe renewables make good public-policy sense for Hawai'i," said Karl Stahlkopf, Hawaiian Electric's senior vice president of energy solutions and chief technology officer. Stahlkopf will head the new company while retaining his position with the parent firm.

One factor driving the company's interest in alternative energy is an increase in support from policy-makers. The Legislature is requiring Hawai'i electric utilities to cultivate power production from renewable sources, and Gov. Linda Lingle has established a statewide goal of having one-fifth of all power coming from renewables by 2020.

For Hawaiian Electric, which gets most of its electricity from oil and coal, that will require nearly tripling its renewable sources. The company got about 7 percent of its power from renewables last year. Nearly a third of that came from geothermal wells on the Big Island, and more than half from the Honolulu H-Power plant, which burns municipal solid waste, and from burning sugar cane waste on Maui.

Wind and solar power are very small producers thus far, but Stahlkopf said he had been talking with companies interested in partnerships to produce wind power. One of them proposes a wind field on O'ahu, he said.

"We will be looking at all sorts of opportunities, and we hope to be taking some sort of equity position to help this happen," he said.

While biomass is the state's biggest non-fossil fuel energy source, Stahlkopf does not see much immediate potential for growth from any company whose only product is energy from biomass.

"We've taken a look at it. The current biomass fuel of choice is something called elephant grass, but it doesn't look too promising right now. But that could change.

"Perhaps biomass, when it's a byproduct of another process — we're talking to someone about something like that," he said. Stahlkopf said he was prevented from discussing details of the projects Hawaiian Electric is reviewing with other firms.

Lingle said renewables are a priority for her administration, both to help protect the environment and to buffer changes in the price of fossil fuels.

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and its science and environment writer. You can call him at (808) 245-3074 or e-mail jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.