Hawaiian Electric Company selects Altairnano for solar energy integration demo

Altair Nanotechnologies will supply a one-megawatt ALTI-ESS energy storage system for a test of solar energy integration at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Under the contract, Altairnano will provide the ALTI-ESS battery-based power management system to be tested on Hawaiian Electric's electric system to smooth the voltage and load profile with the aid of dynamic voltage controls and fast charge/discharge abilities. The test is expected to demonstrate solutions to integrate higher levels of renewable energy onto the grid, improve capacity utilization, and maintain grid performance and reliability while reducing the state's dependency on fossil-fuel power generation.

Solar power has seen tremendous growth in recent years. In fact, the Solar Electric Power Association ranked Hawaiian Electric third nationally in 2010 for their increase in solar power per customer.

"In Hawaii, we depend on imported fossil fuels for more than 90 percent of our energy, including both electricity and transportation. To break that dependence, we need to develop a broad range of clean energy solutions," Darren Pai, Senior Communications Consultant, Hawaiian Electric Company, told FierceEnergy in an interview.  "Solar power is an important part of that portfolio. By integrating higher amounts of solar power, we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, protect our environment and our economy."

Hawaiian Electric Company is aggressively looking for ways to integrate more clean energy in a reliable and cost effective manner.

"Clean energy benefits everyone, both utilities and our customers. By using more clean energy, we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Instead of spending billions of dollars to import oil into Hawaii, our state can keep that money home in our economy," Pai said. "We are committed to making our grid smarter, more reliable and better equipped to integrate clean energy sources like solar power. As we develop our smart grid systems, we will be looking at technologies that will interface with these kinds of projects."

For more:
- see this release

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