The 28-megawatt solar farm on the south shore of the Garden Isle includes a first-of-its-kind design that transfers power from the sun to batteries and onto the power grid more efficiently than other existing storage systems, AES Chief Executive Officer Andres Gluski said Tuesday in an interview. That allows the Lawai Solar and Energy Storage Project to supply energy more consistently than typical wind or solar farms.
“We’ve passed the 50-yard line, and the end zone is in sight,” Kauai Island Utility Cooperative President and CEO David Bissell said as the cooperative and its renewable energy partner AES unveiled the state’s largest solar-plus-utility-scale-storage power facility.