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49 City parks receiving energy efficient facility upgrades through partnership

NORESCO contract aims to provide over $97 million in energy savings, improved park amenities over 20 years

O‘AHU -- Improving energy efficiency and benefiting our environment while saving taxpayer funds and generating green jobs - these are the goals of an energy-savings performance contract upgrading various park amenities at 49 City parks across O‘ahu.

Launching on National Energy Efficiency Day, this multi-year effort between the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and NORESCO will upgrade City park facilities island-wide beginning at Herbert K. Pililā‘au Community Park in Wai‘anae.

The overall effort is expected to yield a plethora of environmental, technical, health, safety, and social benefits to our island community by:

Improving the Park Experience

Increasing Efficiency

Benefiting the Environment

Stimulating the Economy
  • Addressing deferred maintenance to make facilities more publicly available
  • Enables park staff to address more maintenance issues
  • Upgraded, higher performance equipment resulting in less breakdowns
  • 15,000 individual LED light upgrades
  • 1,000 efficient plumbing fixture installations
  • 16 weather-based irrigation controls and two system replacements
  • 14 on-site pool chlorine generation systems

  • Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants
  • Minimizing water & electricity usage; supporting a more resilient energy grid and contributing to 10% water reduction
  • Use of less harmful pool chemicals through salt to chlorine generation
  • $97 million in taxpayer savings over 20 years ($3.4 million in the first year)
  • 400 local jobs generated and supported by the various projects
  • Over 38% utility cost savings used to fund these park improvements

A combination of seven different energy conservation measures aim to achieve these goals at the 49 different City park locations. They include:

  • 49 parks switching to interior & exterior LED lights
  • 23 parks retrofitting or replacing plumbing fixtures
  • 16 parks receiving weather-based irrigation controls
  • 14 pools installing new pool pumps and on-site chlorine generation systems
  • 10 parks improving their electrical transformers
  • 9 parks upgrading to LED field lighting
  • 2 beach parks eliminating major water leaks through extensive piping replacement

"With this effort we selected the projects and energy conservation measures which will deliver the greatest benefit to park users and the environment," said Laura H. Thielen, DPR Director. "For instance, the 14 pool pump upgrades will cut down on maintenance while making the pools safer for the public, staff, and environment through the use of less chlorine. This will make the pools more available for public use with pumps that work better, and make them more energy and water efficient, at a time when are aiming to cut down water usage by more than 10%. It's a win-win-win situation."

In an effort to help park users visualize and keep track of the various improvements as part of this project, an interactive online map has been launched and can be accessed by following this link: bit.ly/efficientparks. This website outlines the energy efficiency measures being implemented, the parks they are impacting, and any necessary closures while the measures are installed. Any significant park facility closures resulting from this effort will additionally be shared on DPR's social media platforms. Additionally, a news conference detailing this effort was live streamed on DPR's YouTube Channel, and can be viewed by following this link: bit.ly/efficentparkslive

"Our team at NORESCO is honored to collaborate with DPR and design a project that not only safeguards the longevity of our beloved parks, but also contributes to the sustainability and economic prosperity of our community," said Nicole Velasco, Senior Account Executive, NORESCO. "During construction, over 80% of the workforce will be Hawai‘i residents, and over 400 jobs will be generated by the project."

The improvements are scheduled to be installed in phases, with all energy upgrades operational by summer 2024.

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