The Government of Hawaii has long sought to connect its far-flung islands electrically with submarine, HVDC cables. The increase in price of oil in the mid-2000s spurred Governor Linda Lingle, and her successor Neil Abercrombie, to create a process to build that inter-island cable system. Hawaii currently depends on imported fossil fuel – primarily oil – to meet over 90% of its energy needs, and its energy costs are among the highest in the nation. Thus, the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI) will be a broad-based partnership that effectively focuses federal, State, and private capabilities for clean energy technology development, application, and market transformation.

The result of several years of analysis and discussion is a project that will build connections between O’ahu – where the bulk of Hawaii’s electric load is – and Moloka’i, Lana’i, Maui, and/or Hawai’i Island. The exact configuration will be spelled out in a Request for Proposals that is expected in the first half of 2012. A draft RFP has been available since December 2011. Anbaric has been monitoring the Hawaii developments for years and is working with its partners to prepare a comprehensive and competitive project proposal for the RFP.