Kalaeloa Airport on Oahu is used by the U.S. Coast Guard, Hawaii Community College Flight Program, Hawaii National Guard and the general aviation community. The airport has recently undergone a number of major improvements, including a new airfield lighting system, runway paving, and the addition of new emergency power systems, fire fighting and communication equipment.

To supply power to the airport’s eight hangar bays for small private aircraft, the airport installed a three phase SimpliPhi + Solar microgrid. The 46.08 kW system includes 144 CentroSolar 320W modules, two OutBack 9kW FP3 inverters, 11 OutBack FM80 charge controllers and 80 PHI 3.4 batteries. All equipment was purchased from Inter-Island Solar Supply.

By installing a microgrid, the airport avoided the cost and disruption of trenching through the concrete airfield to bring in new power lines. The large off-grid system was sized to provide critical power for loads and multiple days of energy autonomy.