Puna geothermal power plant in Hawaii expects to restart this month
Drilling rig at Puna Geothermal Power Plant, Big Island, Hawaii (source: betterplace.com)
Alexander Richter
9 Sep 2020
Puna Geothermal Venture has announced it will restart the Puna geothermal power plant on the Big Island of Hawaii as early as next week (mid to end of September 2020).
Local news report, that the Puna geothermal power plant by Puna Geothermal Ventures on Hawaii Island is to restart at the end of September 2020.
During the volcanic eruption on the island in 2018, part of the infrastructure, yet not the plant itself, was partially destroyed.
Last week, Puna Geothermal Venture announced the plan for restarting the plant last week. The company will also be holding virtual community meetings to inform its neighbours and the local community.
Puna Geothermal Venture announced the planned restart last week and also said it will host virtual community meetings to provide operational updates along with other information and to answer questions from the public.
The Puna Complex is located on the Big Island, Hawaii on privately leased land. The complex is comprised of two power plants, utilizing our geothermal combined cycle and binary systems pair with air cooling. The generating capacity of both plants is a combined 38 MW, with the first plant reaching commercial operation in 1993, and the second in 2012. (Source: Ormat Technologies).
The plant has not been operating since the volcanic event in 2018. Since then two new wells have been drilled and an expansion program is under way, as we reported. Before the shutdown, the geothermal plant supplied 31% of the electricity on Hawaii Island.
PGV is now planning to start the plant as early as next week, gradually ramping up to produce 29 MW of power by the end of the year.
Source: West Hawaii Today
