2007-09-21 TCOUNCIL-wind - Laserfiche WebLink

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GRAHAM: Yeah, I think I understand that. And the only thing that is kind of coming to me, like I live in the Ag district and I know they built a big wind energy facility in North Kohala. If there’s no Use Permit required in the Ag district, I guess subject to the setbacks a guy right next door to me who might be only 50 yards away could build a great big wind turbine and that’s that, I have no say about it. But in the Open zoned district there will be a Use Permit so that the neighbors and all can speak to it a little bit. So that’s why you may be putting it in the Use Permit, huh? HAYASHI: That’s correct. GRAHAM: Thank you. Commissioner Woodward? WOODWARD: I might just share a story that I shared with Mr. Darrow earlier. It was just about wind energy in general because I’m sure any of you that have driven by South Point recently have seen those huge, there’s 14 huge windmills that they put up there, 300 feet tall with 90-foot blades on them. And at the most recent Chamber of Commerce meetings one of the board members asked me, well, did that have to go through the Planning Department? So I called Norm and he said, no, first of all it’s built on Hawaiian Home lands, so they didn’t require anything; but even if it had been on Agricultural land it would have been a permitted use. So then I was curious. I said, well, ’cause some people think, well, they’re kind of nice, some people think it’s an eyesore. But the question was how much power do these things really put out? They got 14 big, really big, windmills. And I talked to a few people and I looked into it, and I was thinking half a percent maybe of the State power grid. It turns out it’s more like almost 10 percent. These 14 windmills can supply 10,000 homes with power, just 14 of them. That blew me away, so to speak, to use the wind analogy. But, anyway, now I’m a believer. You know, I thought, well, they’re just tinkering around and this really is not the solution to the problem. You know, it’s like solar energy which does some good but it’s never going to, you know, take care of our reliance on oil. But this has much more potential. So I just wanted to share that with you. It turns out that these things, like I say, just these 14 windmills supplies between 7 and 10 percent of the power grid for the State of Hawaii right now. GRAHAM: You mean the State or the County? WOODWARD: I mean the County, excuse me, the County, yeah. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman? GRAHAM: Yes, Commissioner Domingo. DOMINGO: Norman, under the Agricultural designation, you know, I often hear a Use Permit is required and/or a Special Permit. What are the differences and what are the implications of a Use Permit and a Special Permit, when you look at both of them? EXHIBIT C 3