The Navy plans to lease out two sites on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, outlined in orange, for construction of biofuel and solar energy plants intended to give the service greater energy resiliency. (U.S. Navy)
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Navy plans to lease out 25 acres on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for a pair of biofuel and solar energy plants expected to be operational by 2027.
The Navy is now seeking public comment on a draft environmental assessment for construction of the projects involving two separate land leases on the Oahu joint base.
The projects would demolish three historic buildings at Pearl Harbor and reuse six others, according to the draft assessment.
One 10-acre site would house a biofuel-powered generation plant, while a separate 15 acres would hold a photovoltaic solar generating system, according to the draft environmental assessment. Both sites would house lithium-ion battery storage systems.
The sites would be connected to the existing distribution system operated by Hawaiian Electric Co., which provides roughly 95% of the state’s electricity.
Ameresco Inc., a publicly traded renewable energy firm headquartered in Massachusetts, was selected in December to develop the project.
The land lease could last up to 37 years, at which time the Navy and the plants’ operator could agree on new lease terms or decommission the system, the assessment states.
The plants are needed to improve the joint base’s “energy security, strategic flexibility, and energy resiliency,” the assessment states.
“It would enable [Hawaiian Electric] to move cheaper, cleaner energy to where it is needed, both on- and off-base, which supports the installation’s renewable energy goals while contributing to the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative’s goal of generating 100 percent of Hawaii’s energy from renewable sources by 2045,” the assessment states.
The new plants would address “the Navy’s critical energy security gaps by providing energy resiliency to the entire base in the event of a grid outage,” the assessment states.
The draft characterizes the joint base’s electrical distribution system as aging, undersized and overloaded.
The biofuel plant would provide 103 MW peak capacity. The project would require laying a new underground electrical transmission “backbone” connecting the plants to Hawaiian Electric’s existing substation on the joint base, the assessment states.
The projects will have to navigate around issues of historically significant structures on the joint base.
The U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor was designated a National Historic Landmark district in 1964.
The proposed projects “would alter the Pearl Harbor National Historic Landmark (PHNHL) through the construction of new facilities, demolition of three historic properties, and reuse of six historic properties, all of which contribute to the PHNHL District,” the assessment states.
Among the buildings slated for demolition for the project are two massive warehouses built in 1941. The larger of the two, at 801 feet by 101 feet, could house nearly three football fields end to end.
“The warehouse was determined to be a distinctive building type due to its large size,” the assessment states.
The draft assessment is at https://pacific.navfac.navy.mil/About-Us/National-Environmental-Policy-Act-NEPA-Information/
Comments can be submitted through May 2 to NFPAC-Receive2@navy.mil or mailed to Department of the Navy, NAVFAC Atlantic, Attn: Project Manager for JBPHH EUL Energy EA (EV21), 6506 Hampton Blvd., Norfolk VA 23508.
