Hawaii-2018-HB2120-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the production of wind energy on a commercial scale frequently requires significant land disturbance and large installations consisting of wind turbines, electrical substations, electrical lines, and other supporting systems. If abandoned or not properly maintained, wind energy facilities could pose a hazard to public health, safety, and welfare through mechanical failures, electrical hazards, or the release of hazardous substances. Abandoned or neglected wind energy facilities may also be a blight on the State's natural beauty.

The legislature further finds that other states have developed robust decommissioning regulations for windmills that are abandoned or left in disrepair. Decommissioning regulations help to ensure the health and safety of the public, especially those persons residing near the wind energy facility.

The purpose of this Act is to protect the public against health and safety hazards and to preserve the natural beauty of Hawaii by ensuring the safe, proper, and prompt decommissioning of wind energy facilities at the end of their useful lives.

SECTION 2. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"Chapter

Wind energy facility DECOMMISSIONING

§ -1 Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Abandonment" means the failure to generate electricity from a commercial wind energy facility for a period of twenty-four consecutive months for reasons other than curtailment, repowering, a valid judicial order, or other governmental regulatory action, with no pending negotiations for purchase or a power purchase agreement. A commercial wind energy facility shall not be considered abandoned if the owner or operator has elected not to run the facility, but it has been maintained in proper working order and is capable of generating electricity; provided that, if, after thirty-six months, the facility has not generated power in commercial quantities, the facility shall be deemed abandoned.

"Commencement of construction" means beginning excavation of wind turbine foundations or other actions relating to the eventual erection and installation of commercial wind energy equipment, but shall not include erection of meteorological data towers, environmental assessments, environmental impact statements, surveys, preliminary engineering, or other activities associated with an assessment of the development of the wind resources on a given parcel of property.

"Commercial quantities" means an amount of electrical energy sufficient for sale or use off-site from a wind turbine or wind energy facility, and shall not include amounts of electrical energy used only for the maintenance or testing of the wind turbine or wind energy facility itself.

"Commercial wind energy equipment" means a wind tower and turbine with five hundred kilowatts or greater of total nameplate generating capacity.

"Offshore wind energy facility" means an electrical generation facility consisting of one or more wind turbines under common ownership or operating control located offshore in a designated wind energy area for which an initial federal lease was issued on a competitive basis.

"Wind energy facility" means an electrical generation facility consisting of one or more wind turbines under common ownership or operating control, and includes substations, meteorological data towers, aboveground and underground electrical transmission lines, transformers, control systems, and other buildings or facilities used to support the operation of the facility, and whose primary purpose is to supply electricity to an off-site customer, but shall not include a wind energy facility located entirely on property held in fee simple estate by the owner of the wind energy facility if the energy produced is consumed on-site solely by the owner.

"Wind turbine" means a wind energy conversion system that converts wind energy into electricity through the use of a wind turbine generator, and includes the turbine, blade, tower, base, and pad transformer, if any.

§ -2 Decommissioning of wind energy facilities. (a) Any owner of a commercial wind energy facility shall be responsible, at the owner's expense, for the decommissioning of the wind energy facility upon abandonment or the end of the useful life of the commercial wind energy equipment in the wind energy facility. Nothing in this section shall prevent county permitting agencies from including decommissioning requirements as a condition for a building permit.

(b) Decommissioning of a wind energy facility shall include:

(1) Removal of wind turbines, towers, buildings, cabling, electrical components, foundations, and any other associated facilities, to a depth of thirty inches below grade; and

(2) Restoring disturbed earth to substantially the same physical condition as existed prior to the commencement of construction of the wind energy facility by the owner, including grading and reseeding.

(c) The decommissioning of a wind energy facility or individual pieces of commercial wind energy equipment shall be completed as follows:

(1) By the owner of the wind energy facility within twelve months after abandonment or the end of the useful life of the commercial wind energy equipment in the wind energy facility; or

(2) If the owner of the wind energy facility fails to complete the decommissioning within the period prescribed in paragraph (1), by the owner of the land on which the wind energy facility is located within twenty-four months after abandonment or the end of the useful life of the commercial wind energy equipment in the wind energy facility. The owner of the land shall be entitled to recover all reasonable costs incurred from the owner of the wind energy facility; or

(3) If the owner of the land fails to complete the decommissioning within the period specified in paragraph (2), by the department of land and natural resources, which may institute condemnation proceedings to acquire the land for this purpose. The department of land and natural resources shall be entitled to recover all reasonable costs incurred from the owner of the wind energy facility and the owner of the land jointly and severally.

(d) This section shall not apply to wind energy facilities existing in the State on the effective date of this Act, provided that:

(1) An existing lease or other agreement between the wind energy facility owner and the owner of the land on which the facility is located, or a power purchase agreement under which the wind energy facility owner is operating, provides for the decommissioning of the wind energy facility after abandonment or the end of the useful life of the commercial wind energy equipment in the wind energy facility; or

(2) The wind energy facility was constructed on fee simple land owned by the wind energy facility owner."

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2018.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2120
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII