Hawaii shares with many other isolated areas and island communities of the Pacific a near-total dependence for energy on imported oil--a supply source which during the past decade has become increasingly expensive and less secure. Hawaii also shares with many of these areas which are deficient in conventional energy supplies, a variety of renewable energy resources which can serve as substitutes, or alternatives to seaborne petroleum. A case study showing what has been accomplished in Hawaii in moving one of these resources--wind energy--closer to commercialization is based on the limited amount of known information on the potential of wind energy in the Pacific region and studies which are underway to expand the knowledge on the extent of the wind resource throughout thi region.

The Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) and the Department of Meteorology of the University of Hawaii have developed over the past 6 years an inventory of the wind resource in Hawaii. This effort involved an extensive system of 18 long-term wind data stations located on the five major islands, supplemented by a series of mobile, short-term stations and a loan program of wind measurement devices for specific site measurements. The Hawaii Wind Data Bank provides information both to wind researchers and to those who are seeking optimum sites for installing wind energy conversion systems (WECS). HNEI also is engaged in a WECS reliability verification program and is conducting research on various wind energy applications, including storage and nitrogen generation.

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