Hawaiian Electric has submitted eight contracts for new grid-scale renewable energy and storage projects on Oahu and Maui to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for approval.
The eight contracts represent nearly 300MW of new clean power generation and about 2000 megawatt-hours of storage.
They are scheduled for completion in 2022 and 2023.
The six projects on Oahu and two on Maui are part of the largest renewable energy procurement ever for the US island state.
The six Oahu projects are expected to provide generation and storage needed to retire the state’s only coal plant, a 180MW facility at Campbell Industrial Park owned by AES, by September 2022.
On Maui, the two proposed renewable energy projects will enable the retirement of the 38MW oil-fired Kahului plant in 2024.
The eight projects are part of the second phase of Hawaiian Electric’s renewable procurement effort that began in February 2018.
Three of the original projects withdrew and contracts for three other projects are still being negotiated with Hawaiian Electric.
Hawaiian Electric senior vice president Jim Alberts said: “As planned, these projects will significantly advance our state’s renewable energy transformation and benefit everyone by reducing our exposure to volatile oil prices.”