IEEE PES ExCom Meeting Honolulu, Hawaii, October 2019
On Oct 24th and 25th the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) held its ExCom meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, Hawaii. The local Hawaii PES chapter helped to host this event and it included a full day tour to two PV farms and the IEEE Milestone Award plaque at Iolani Palace on the 24th. The Distinguished Lecturer Seminar was held at the College of Engineering, University of Hawaii with the student branch on the evening of the 25th.
The first tour was to Clearway’s Waipio 45.9MW solar farm composed of Sunpower mc-Si (poly-Si) modules with single axis trackers which uses sheep grazing to help manage vegetation (see Photo 1). On the second tour, the visit was to Mililani solar farm,comprised of First Solar CdTe solar panels also using single axis trackers. These utility scale PV farms and future solar battery storage farms will all help Hawaii achieve the 100% Renewable Clean Energy mandate by 2045.
After lunch the group traveled to Iolani Palace to see the IEEE Milestone Award plaque which was dedicated on the historic 130th anniversary of the electric lighting of the town of Honolulu back on March 23, 1888. The Hawaii PES chapter was the sponsor for the IEEE Milestone Award proposal spending one year working closely with the Friends of Iolani Palace to acknowledge “The Electric Lighting of the Kingdom of Hawaii, 1886-1888” (see Photo 2). Photo 3 below shows Saifur Rahman, PES President and John Borland Hawaii PES Chapter Chair and IEEE Region 6 Central Area Sections Chair standing next to the IEEE Milestone Award plaque on the grounds of Iolani Palace. Photo 4 shows the PES ExCom members at Iolani Palace posed below the Coat of Arms for the Kingdom of Hawaii.
On the 24th evening, the Hawaii PES chapter jointly with the student branch at the University of Hawaii sponsored an IEEE Distinguished Lecture Seminar presented by Prof. Saifur Rahman at the College of Engineering Holmes Hall engineering building. The talk was titled “Innovations in Power Engineering Smart Grid for Integration of Renewables”. Photo 5 shows Prof. Saifur during his lecture wearing the traditional Hawaiian lei.
John Borland