Updated at 3:43 p.m., Saturday, February 17, 2007
$61 million biodiesel plant in Maui Electric's plans
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
In making the announcement today, MECO President Ed Reinhardt said the project will be a first step toward eliminating use of imported petroleum-based fuel at the utility's 215-megawatt Ma'alaea Power Plant, which supplies about 85 percent of the island's electrical capacity.
MECO consumed 72.1 million gallons of imported diesel in 2005, and officials are examining what it will take to convert the Ma'alaea generators to biodiesel, Reinhardt said. The company already uses biodiesel to start up and shut down some of the Ma'alaea units because it burns more cleanly during those processes.
The new biodiesel plant will be owned by BlueEarth Maui Biodiesel LLC, a partnership between BlueEarth Biofuels LLC and a new nonregulated subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Co., parent company of MECO.
BlueEarth Biofuels, based in Texas and Arizona, is a developer of power and renewable-energy projects in the western United States.
The plant, which is expected to provide at least 40 jobs, will be constructed on 15 acres at MECO's Waena Generating Station site on Pulehu Road, across from the Central Maui Landfill. The land is zoned for renewable-energy use.
The refinery is scheduled to be in service by 2009, producing 40 million gallons per year of biodiesel from palm oil imported from plantations around the Pacific Rim and South America, said Landis Maez, a managing partner in BlueEarth Biofuels, which will operate the plant.
