First Wind CEO Paul Gaynor criticizes Castle & Cooke’s decision give 200 megawatts of its wind allocation for the “Big Wind-interisland cable” project to Pattern Energy for a wind farm on Molokai.
The Big Wind project seeks to bring 400 mw of wind energy from Molokai and Lanai to Oahu via an undersea cable. The original 2008 agreement included plans for Boston-based First Wind to develop a 200 mw wind farm on Molokai and Castle & Cooke to develop a 200 mw wind farm on Lanai.
First Wind officials missed a March 18 deadline to secure land for the project from Molokai Ranch and Peter Nicholas, the CEO of Molokai Ranch switched partners to the San Diego-based Pattern Energy and said he would not work with First Wind.
First Wind has told the PUC that the Castle & Cooke and Pattern Energy agreement violates First Wind’s original agreement between Hawaiian Electric Co. and Castle & Cooke violates the PUC’s original order approving the agreement.
Gaynor also described the new agreement with Pattern Energy as “contrary to the interests of ratepayers and the interests of the state of Hawaii and its people.”
Gaynor is asking that the PUC to rule that Castle & Cooke has no right to assign any wind development opportunity on Molokai to Pattern Energy, and that 200 mw of the wind project be put out to competitive bid. The 200 mw to which First Wind refers includes 150 mw which Castle & Cooke has chosen not to develop on Lanai and the 50 mw which was originally intended to be competitively bid if development plans for one of the wind farms fell through.
First Wind officials also told Pacific Business News in early April that they hoped that the island of Maui would be included “as the ‘third leg of the stool’ to improve the overall likelihood of success of the interisland cable project.” The island of Maui was not included in the original agreement.