Oil power plant in Hawaii, United States of America. Approximate location 21.389, -157.9615.
OilHawaiiUnited States of AmericaSteam
Waiau is a 475 MW oil power station in Hawaii, United States of America. It is operated by Hawaiian Electric Co Inc. Based on reported annual generation of 1,002 GWh, it can supply roughly 286k homes. It ranks #1325 of 10,938 United States of America power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1963, it is around 63 years old — an older, legacy facility. In context, oil supplies about 0.7% of United States of America's electricity; the national grid averages 384 gCO₂/kWh (43.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id USA0000766.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000409249); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 475 MW, Waiau is well above the median oil plant in United States of America (7 MW). Technically it is described as Steam. Oil-fired plants burn heavy fuel oil or diesel, usually as peaking or backup capacity on islands and grids without gas pipelines; high fuel cost keeps their utilisation low.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Annual generation (GWh), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Hawaiian Electric Co Inc.
This oil plant burns oil or diesel to drive turbines or reciprocating engines. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen As) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 21.4°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #23 largest oil power plant of 902 in United States of America by capacity.
United States of America has 902 oil power plants in this dataset, together about 40,022 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 21.389, -157.9615 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Waiau is a 475 MW source-record oil power plant in Hawaii, United States of America, commissioned in 1963.
Waiau generates about 1,002 GWh of electricity per year.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 286,342 homes.
Waiau is operated by Hawaiian Electric Co Inc.
