Military housing to get solar
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Thousands of military homes in southern New Mexico and West Texas will be fitted with solar panels as part of a $1 billion plan by a California company to bring solar to military installations across the country.
SolarCity on Tuesday announced it will be installing photovoltaic panels on homes at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Texas' Fort Bliss.
The company is already working with housing managers at bases in Arizona, California, Colorado and Hawaii.
In all, SolarCity aims to install photovoltaic systems on as many as 120,000 military homes over five years.
Company officials say the systems at Fort Bliss and White Sands will be capable of offsetting more than half of the electricity typically used in each community.
Army officials say Fort Bliss has a goal of being energy self-sufficient by 2018.
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Public housing to get upgrades
HONOLULU - Hawaii is kicking off an $11 million project to modernize a public housing complex in the Palolo neighborhood of Honolulu.
The Hawaii Public Housing Authority is holding a groundbreaking ceremony for work at Palolo Valley Homes on Tuesday.
The first phase of the project will include improvements to both the insides and outsides of six buildings. Seven of the 44 units involved in the first phase will be renovated to accommodate disabled tenants.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie released funds for the project last month. The money is part of a $92 million job creation initiative.
The Hawaii Public Housing Authority administers 6,000 state and federal public housing units on five islands. It also provides 1,900 rental vouchers on Oahu.
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Restaurant repairs sewer line
HONOLULU - The owner and landlord of a Kauai restaurant paid a fine of more than $47,000 for using two large cesspools long after they were forced to close by federal regulations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.
After shutting down the two cesspools, Brennecke's Beach Broiler, in the popular tourist destination of Poipu, paid more than $1.3 million to connect the establishment - as well as nearby public beach park restrooms - to a sewer line.
Federal environmental officials commended restaurant owner Bob French for linking the Poipu Beach Park restrooms to the sewer line he built, at a cost of half a million dollars.
