Puna Geothermal Venture to Host Virtual Community Meeting

Puna Geothermal Venture, along with representatives from Hawaiʻi County and Hawaiian Electric, will host a public virtual community meeting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 12, to provide updates and answer questions.

PGV, a subsidiary of Ormat Technologies, has been back online since November 2020 and is continuing to ramp up production.

“Before the lava flow, PGV was supplying 31% of Hawaiʻi Island’s electric needs. We are working to get back up to the output we had; we were producing 38 megawatts then and are at 25 MW now,” said Michael Kaleikini, Ormat’s senior director, Hawaiʻi Affairs.

The public can take part in the Jan. 12 meeting by clicking a link on PGV’s website. The link will become live at the start of the meeting. The public can also submit questions in advance by clicking here.

“We remain committed to providing the public with information about what is happening at PGV and welcome the community’s feedback,” Kaleikini said.

In addition to participating in virtual meetings, residents with questions or concerns can call 808-369-9094. Weekly project updates are posted online.

PGV regularly hosts quarterly community meetings. The meetings will be hosted the second Wednesday of January, April, July and October this year. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meetings have been conducted virtually and will continue to be done so until further notice.

“We hope one day soon we can resume in-person meetings,” Kaleikini said, “but as long as pandemic conditions remain, we will host our meetings virtually.”

Written highlights and video recordings of earlier virtual community meetings are available online.