Island Energy Inquiry graduates from across the state gathered to partake in several Refresher courses; a one-day workshop that includes a tour around a renewable energy space located in Hawaii and a hands-on workshops that helps to refresh and revitalize the joy of renewable energy and how it is used around the islands.
Teachers convened together on January 30, 2016 to HPOWER, a waste-to-energy facility owned by Covanta. The facility is built to take upwards of 3000 tons of waste per day. The waste is burned at high temperatures, boiling water which produces the steam that generates electricity for Honolulu.
While the Honolulu facilities crane was not the model, a Covanta crane used to carry the waste from the waste bunker to the combustion chamber can be seen near the end of Disney’s Pixar movie Toy Story 3, allowing teachers and their students a way to connect a real-life renewable energy source and fiction.
Maui IEI graduates took a trip to the Auwahi Wind Farm on February 6, 2016 where they toured the inside of a wind turbine and found that this wind farm is one of the best locations in the world for consistent wind!
This video shows a time-lapse video of the construction process of one of the wind turbines:
The facilities also contains a battery storage capacity to support the stability of the power grid while also preserving the natural land around Ulupalakua Ranch.