Honua Ola Makes Unprecedented Carbon Negative Commitment to the PUC

With the filing of its Post-Hearing Brief to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on March 29, Honua Ola Bioenergy (Hu Honua Bioenergy, LLC in legal documents) made an unprecedented commitment to be carbon negative – Hawaii’s only renewable energy project to make such a promise.

Honua Ola made this commitment knowing how important its ability to produce clean, renewable energy is to future generations of Hawaii Island, while also reducing the island’s dependence on fossil fuels and keeping the state on track to have 100% renewable energy on the grid by 2045.

Among several significant conditions of approval that Honua Ola made to the PUC in its filing, Honua Ola offered the PUC the opportunity to provide its own input to ensure the project will be carbon negative, summarized as follows:

• Hu Honua agrees to place $100,000 (or in the alternative, a range of up to $450,000 if the Commission believes a higher amount is more appropriate) of “seed money”, which may include marketable liquid assets, into a reserve fund or escrow account in Year 1 which will remain in the account for the entire 30 year A&R PPA term (or in the alternative, a lesser term if the Commission believes a lesser period of time is more appropriate) to serve as cushion of available funds to ensure that its carbon negative commitments are met. If there is any carbon sequestration deficit in the annual reporting to the PUC, Hu Honua will also place additional funds into the account each year over the 30-year term to cover the deficit and purchase carbon offsets (approximately $15/ton);
• Hu Honua agrees to a condition requiring Hu Honua to provide a minimum of 3 prospective names of independent verifiers to the PUC, allow all parties to comment, then the PUC can approve which prospective names are qualified to perform the independent five-year verification, then Hu Honua will select the independent verifier from the PUC approved list;
• Hu Honua agrees to a condition that within 60 months after a final, non-appealable approval order from the PUC, Hu Honua will provide documentation to the PUC demonstrating that it has secured additional acreage on Hawaii Island to provide the feedstock for the remaining term of the A&R PPA;
• Hu Honua agrees not to receive a preferential rate for any period of energy generation using out-of-state feedstock; rather, Hu Honua would only be able to recover the Avoided Cost Rate as published monthly by HELCO for such period assuming such rate is lower than the A&R PPA rate;
• Hu Honua agrees to all of the recommended conditions within Hu Honua’s control described in Section II.F of the CA’s Prehearing Statement of Position; and
• Hu Honua stipulates to ongoing review by the PUC for purposes of reviewing and enforcing Hu Honua’s carbon negative commi1ments and any other commitments proffered by Hu Honua in this proceeding. If Hu Honua fails to meet any commitments, it agrees to cure any shortcomings within a reasonable period of time to ensure that Hu Honua’s commitments are met.

In addition, in the event the above proposed conditions (further discussed in Section III.E) are insufficient or require further clarity for the Commission, Hu Honua agrees to adopt any reasonable modifications and/or additional conditions ordered by the Commission that will enable the Commission to hold Hu Honua accountable and enforce any conditions of approval. Hu Honua’s offer to incorporate the above conditions of approval in its decision should provide sufficient assurance that the Project will be carbon negative and GHG emissions will be reduced.

To read Honua Ola’s entire Post-Hearing Brief filed with the PUC, please click on the following link: https://dms.puc.hawaii.gov/dms/DocumentViewer?pid=A1001001A22C30A91026D00727