Japan’s largest power provider has proposed a new gas plant on Oahu to help transition the Hawaiian island away from oil-based power, despite concerns from environmentalists who say liquid natural gas is too expensive and unreliable.
JERA this week released a proposal for the island’s grid, including a roughly 500-megawatt power plant supported by LNG imports. JERA also would build floating LNG import infrastructure as part of the investment.
The proposal builds on a partnership agreement that the company and state signed last October. It’s part of Hawaii’s effort to move away from burning oil, which can be shipped more easily to the state but emits more pollution and is expensive. Currently, about 70 percent of Oahu’s electricity is generated from oil.
The gas plant, which JERA aims to have operable by 2030, would reduce electricity generation costs by about 20 percent, the company said. It also said the quick-start capabilities of a large gas plant would pair well with intermittent renewable generation from wind and solar.
