As drought conditions continue throughout much of the state, only one plan to extract freshwater from the ocean remains active.
Three separate desalination projects have been proposed on different islands over the last decade. But of those three, only one is still being developed, while another project has ended and the third never really began.
Pūlama Lāna‘i, the land management company established in 2012 by the island’s owner Larry Ellison, had plans to develop a desalination plant on the island in order to support greater housing developments on the island. Maui County planning records indicate that the facility, a 15-acre plant located near Manele Golf Course on the island’s southern coast, would be able to provide 5 million gallons of freshwater per day.
However, by 2015, those plans stalled, after the Lāna‘i Planning Commission only granted Pūlama Lāna‘i a 15-year permit for the facility, rather than a 30-year one as initially requested.
Transcripts from Planning Commission meetings in 2014 show skepticism from commissioners and residents about the project, including concerns about the health of the island’s aquifer, which was already overextended at the time, and the potential for a failure at the plant to compromise the island’s primary water source.
Subsequent reporting in 2015 suggested that Pūlama Lāna‘i still intended to develop a desalination plant, but as of 2025, no such plans have materialized.
Two other desalination projects have produced more tangible results. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded $1.9 million to the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority to develop a prototype solar-powered desalination facility in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.
That facility was reportedly successful, with project partner Trevi Systems touting in 2024 that the facility could produce 500 cubic meters — about 132,000 gallons — of fresh water per day without reliance on an external energy grid.
However, the NELHA facility was a test project only that operated between June 2022 and September 2023. While the project paved the way for larger-scale renewable desalination facilities in the future, none have so far been proposed for Hawai‘i.
The third facility, planned on O‘ahu, is gradually moving toward reality. The Kalaeloa Seawater Desalination Facility is planned for construction at Campbell Industrial Park, with a proposed yield of 1.7 million gallons of water per day.
According to the 2024 state Data Book, Honolulu County consumed nearly 45 billion gallons of water between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, averaging out to about 123 million gallons per day.
While construction has not yet started on the $204 million Kalaeloa facility — which is scheduled to go online in 2027 — the bureaucratic process continues apace. According to a project website, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply approved in May a test report that concluded that the water produced by the facility will not cause any detrimental impact to customer pipes or existing water infrastructure.
Aloha State Daily reached out to the Board of Water Supply, NELHA and Pūlama Lāna‘i for comment.
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