O‘AHU – Mayor Rick Blangiardi was joined by City leaders and industry partners for a groundbreaking ceremony at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center to commemorate the start of an $11-million project to install a solar canopy of more than 4,500 large-format photovoltaic panels atop the facility’s parking structure.
The project will span the entire upper deck of the parking structure — an ideal location for a solar canopy, which will provide shade for parking and generating nearly 100% of the Blaisdell Center’s daytime energy needs. As part of the project, a Tesla Megapack battery will be installed to help store clean, renewable energy that can power the Blaisdell Center’s evening events.
“By embarking on this project to generate renewable energy on-site at the Blaisdell campus, we are saving money, creating local jobs and achieving the clean energy goals that the City has wholeheartedly adopted,” said Mayor Rick Blangiardi. “This project perfectly blends our commitment to modernizing City operations with our promise to be better stewards of our climate future, and we are excited to celebrate today’s groundbreaking with our community.”
“We’re really excited that people can feel good about our events, knowing they are powered by renewable energy while also saving money for the City’s operation of the Blaisdell Center,” said Director of Enterprise Services, Dita Holifield.
The entire Blaisdell campus has been undergoing substantial energy efficiency improvements and lighting upgrades as part of a $43.6-million renovation project that began in May 2023. The conservation measures installed throughout the Blaisdell Center complex, when combined with the photovoltaic system, will have a dramatic impact on the Blaisdell’s energy usage.
“We took an approach of reducing energy use first, through energy efficiency improvements across the campus, and then evaluated how much renewable energy could be used with the space available above the Blaisdell Parking Structure,” said Allyn Lee, Program Administrator, Mechanical & Electrical Division, Department of Design and Construction.
The City and County of Honolulu is not paying the $11 million cost of installation. Instead, the City is purchasing energy from the solar panels at approximately one-third less than the utility rate, creating savings without any capital expenses from taxpayers. The installation is part of the City’s $100 million Energy Conservation Measure Project, which is underway at 82 City facilities and includes solar PV and various other conservation measures.
The solar PV canopy for the Neal S. Blaisdell Center parking structure will generate renewable energy electrical production of approximately 3,900,000 kWh annually. According to the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, this is equivalent to 2,794 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) avoided and the greenhouse gas emissions from:
- 665 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year
- 7,146,766 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle
- 314,432 gallons of gasoline consumed
- 551 homes’ electricity use for one year
- 6,470 barrels of oil consumed
- 184,474,425 number of smartphones charged
Working in tandem, the City’s Department of Design and Construction collaborated with other City partners to put together the Request for Proposals, identify the most beneficial energy conservation measures, and selected the Energy Service Contractor, Johnson Controls, who will provide Construction Management and also evaluate additional sustainability measures such as EV charging.
“Such projects not only make sense operationally, but they also implement the City’s Climate Action Plan. This administration remains committed to tackling the direct cause of climate change — carbon pollution — while also improving government services and supporting the necessary community-wide clean energy and transportation transition,” said Matthew Gonser, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability & Resiliency.
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