Mayor Mufi Hannemann today broke ground on the H-POWER Expansion Project, which will add a third boiler to the city-owned waste-to-energy facility and increase the amount of garbage it can combust. The project will also allow the plant to generate much more electricity.

The H-POWER facility currently utilizes two refuse-derived fuel boilers capable of processing a combined 2,160 tons-per-day of nonhazardous municipal solid waste, while generating up to 57 megawatts of energy. This translates into 4.5 percent of Oahu’s electricity, enough to power 45,000 homes.
The third boiler will utilize mass-burn technology and be able to combust an additional 900 tons per day, yielding an additional 25 to 30 megawatts of electricity – enough to supply 25,000 more homes – and supplying a cumulative total of 6 percent of Oahu’s electricity.
The Campbell Industrial Park facility is the cornerstone of the city’s Solid Waste Management System, and combusts nearly 60 percent of the 1.8 million tons of garbage generated on Oahu annually.
The facility’s combustion process reduces the volume of waste used for fuel by 90 percent, burning it at 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and reducing it to an inert ash. The city said it will also install a shredder that will break down bulky items — which the original two boilers cannot process — to fuel the new boiler.
H-POWER, or Honolulu Program Of Waste Energy Recovery, commenced operations in May 1990 and has been operated by Covanta since its inception.
The expansion project will cost approximately $302 million and is expected to be completed in late 2011 or early 2012. The construction will create 300 jobs and produce 34 new full-time employees upon completion.