Huge Lighted Smiley Face Coming with Final Completion of Maui Windmill Project?

Ever wonder why the windmills on Maui just run straight up ridges in a line? Why aren't there more, maybe spread out like others we see elsewhere?

It's because about a decade ago, the original architect and manager of the windmill installation project reached his limits with a whole lot of unforeseen obstacles.

Pierre Levent returned to Maui earlier this year to scope out the wind power structures on the southern point of the West Maui Mountains ~ and develop a new plan with more windmills to complete what was originally a much-larger project.

"I felt bad the past decade just leaving it like it is," said Devent, of France. "I know people wondered why it was just a single line, and not spread all over the place like those in Southern California."

In the Greater Los Angeles region, windmill farms can spread over miles upon miles of land, through flat fields or up and down rolling hills. They are well-known in the hills around Tehachapi, as well as along the route between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

Not so for Maui, which had its project abandoned after only 34 wind turbines were positioned, all lined up on a very visible, prominent ridge.

Every person who travels to Lahaina and west Maui ~ which is darn near anyone who visits here ~ is familiar with the windmills.

"I always wondered why they just did that single string of windmills," said Michaela Smithson of Tehachapi, Calif., which has huge wind farms peppering land with 3,400 turbines. "I thought it was just ornamental, or maybe to generate power for the lights at night to help airplanes navigate landing at OGG."

The original plan was for about 200 wind turbines up and down several ridgelines in that area. However, Devent and crew suddenly and mysteriously walked away from the project in 2012.

"First off, we got hot," he said. "From below it might look like a nice little hike up, with a spectacular view. Well, it's like Kihei without any of the houses and structures to block wind, or trees to create shade. And hotter and windier. After just a few weeks we called it 'Hell's Kihei.'

"And there were constant arguments about who had to run all the way down the ridge, then drive down the highway, to the market in Maalaea to get us cold drinks. It was a super drag when we ran out."

Installation of the current turbines actually began at the top and progressed downward, and the project never actually finished all the way down to the highway as designed. If you look closely, they stop fairly high up the ridge.

"We got sick and tired of lugging those huge things up that ridge. We didn't realize how huge the turbines and blades were, and no one told us about using helicopters," Devent said.

What started as a crew of about 200 dwindled down to a final dozen in fall 2012, when Devent and crew couldn't imagine placing even a few more turbines at the lowest level of the ridge, located on land known as Kaheawa Pastures.

They knew that once at the bottom of that ridge, they would have to start the whole process over on an adjacent ridge, from the top.

"Just thinking about lugging all those huge turbines up another ridge was pretty bad for morale," Devent said. "We still had a lot of materials stored down in Maalaea, so as a group we all decided to flee. We were hot and starving, and a lot of the crew really wanted some cold beer."

No one heard from Devent since then. Not that there was a big search.

The windmills were taken over by a newly formed company, Kaheawa Wind Power, LLC, which operates it to this day.

"No one really cared that they left, really, because they actually did a pretty good job installing the ones you see today," said Wally Wilimakani, spokesman for the company. "Sure they didn't finish the entire project, which had a lot more turbines, but remember, Kaheawa Wind Power was created after the fact, with what already was in the ground. Who put them in became irrelevant. And fewer turbines was just easier to manage in the beginning."

The project has proved successful, even with just 34 turbines. It delivers about 9% of electrical power used on Maui, Wilimakani said.

Devent has been bending ears and talking to anyone who will listen about his ideas to complete the project, to ultimately cover several ridges on that prominent point of the West Mauis. Basically there are a lot of ridges on the mauka side of the West Mauis, all the way to Wailuku.

"The reception has been, let's just say, cool," he said. "First off, they ran into some environmental issues with what we did, mainly about threatened habitat. We thought we took care of that but there were a lot of animals to watch out for, and we rarely saw any so we thought, 'What the heck, the turbines can't hurt something that's not here.' "

Others were still unhappy with the memory of Devent's disappearance in 2012.

"Who strings a bunch of windmills down a ridge, not even all the way to the bottom, and then quits and flees the island?" asked Jill Neuwenbeyer, a bartender in Maalaea. "It looked kind of silly for several years, these lonely in-a-line windmills. No one believed there were enough to generate a significant amount of energy.

"But we all kind of got used to it, and now it's like a part of the geography, a landmark of sorts on the island. Everyone knows where the windmills are. And the fact that the project sits for years unfinished fit right in around here."

Devent said he will not give up on his dream to expand the largest wind farm in Hawaii.

"We need to finish the job," he said. "We even have designs ready, like one that would create a huge happy face on that entire east side of the mountains, when lit up at night. Imagine that!

"Another would be a huge peace sign, you know, with the big circle around it? Like, with what's going on in Ukraine? That should make the environmentalists at least a little less unhappy."