Community FAQs

CERAP Projects were designed by community feedback, through island-wide community meetings, energy surveys, focus group discussions, community workshops, and other talk story sessions at large events. So far 2,463+ forms of community input have shaped the Molokai CERAP process and projects! Please view our timeline graphic to see our process visualized.

The Molokai CERAP is different because, this time, the energy planning process is being led by the community, not HECO (Hawaiian Electric Co.) or other off island developers. Community-led planning means that community voice, values, needs, priorities, and lifestyle shape how projects

Please view live data to date on our website showing  “Who has been shaping this energy plan?”  

The more Molokai residents that give their feedback On the CERAP projects the better! Every comment shapes CERAP projects and plan to reflect what Molokai wants for our energy future and how our energy future can support our community’s needs and values.

Having a large-scale solar project benefits the island by reducing our dependence on imported diesel fuel, which harms the environment and has unpredictable cost increases. Building large-scale or “utility-scale” renewables costs less than installing individual home solar systems. Renewables will help stabilize electricity bills and hopefully keep them lower over time. We can also design these projects to reduce power outages and increase energy security during natural disasters.

As more solar and other renewables come online, a new problem is emerging – “curtailment”. Curtailment is when the system cannot use all the electricity generated at the time, so the renewable generating system has to stop exporting to the grid or even temporarily shut down, effectively wasting energy that could have been used. Keeping curtailment low is important for cost-effective renewable projects.

Early modeling by HNEI suggests there may be significant cost savings and less curtailment if we use some wind generation to complement solar on Molokai’s grid (about 20% of our total energy needs). Wind works at times when solar is not strong (e.g. evening, night and early morning), so we would need fewer batteries to store and shift solar energy later in the day. HNEI needs to do more detailed modeling to see if using a small amount of wind will really decrease costs.

At our energy briefings, HNEI shared an overview of all the current, available energy generation and storage technologies that Molokai might use. These included solar, wind-land & offshore, hydropower, geothermal, biomass, hydrogen, nuclear, wave, batteries and pumped hydro storage. Many of these are very promising but still in the pilot phase, so not practical for this round of CERAP. Molokai’s small grid requirements, community input (past & recent) and abundant solar & wind resources make these appear most likely, but this is still a big CERAP discussion for the community.

The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) regulates all public utility companies, including Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) – Molokai’s utility. Their duty is to protect the public interest by ensuring that HECO provides reliable service at just and reasonable rates. This includes reviewing and approving all proposed renewable energy plans and projects, agreements with energy providers/developers, rate changes, etc. In June 2021, for the first time ever, the PUC and HECO agreed to pause the normal planning process to allow us, the Molokai community, to develop our own plan.

Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO, formerly MECO) is Molokai’s utility, including owning and managing our diesel generators and the grid that delivers electricity to our homes and businesses. HECO has participated in the Hui and the Molokai CERAP as a resource advisor from the beginning and supported our work with data, expertise, their official endorsement and one small start-up grant in 2020 to help the Hui get started. HECO also supported the Hui’s request to the PUC to let our community develop its own energy plan. HECO is not obligated to implement the CERAP projects, and we expect that some projects will not require HECO implementation. Through open communications, we hope HECO will be ready to collaborate on CERAP projects that need their support. The Hui and HNEI will also report our CERAP results to the PUC, who can help guide implementation by all involved.

Solar was installed by Neighborhood Power and owned by Kawela Plantation Homeowners Association (KPHA). Read more here: https://kawelapha.com/node/26