LIHUE, Hawaii — It’s hard to find anywhere in the United States that has greened its electricity supply as quickly as verdant Kauai. And the people of Kauai achieved that on their own, through collective ownership of the electricity grid, not by hoping profit-maximizing utilities find a way to balance the urgency of human-caused climate change with quarterly dividends for shareholders.
Making the island’s utility a cooperative resulted in cheaper and cleaner power. It could hold lessons for communities around the country debating local…
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative’s 60.2% renewable generation once again led the state in 2022, but the output was below the number it generated in 2021.