This week we select the contractor for our hydroelectric project. It should be finished 120 days after construction starts—so, by the end of February.

Our consultant is Mike Maloney, who has done two similar projects for the Department of Water Supply in Kona. He is also working on projects in Ka‘u.

Ours will be a net metering project. This means that the meter will spin forward if we use electricity from HELCO and backwards when we supply electricity to HELCO. This will determine whether we will pay HELCO, or HELCO will pay us.

After using electricity for our own operation, we should have extra that we will supply to HELCO. The PUC is working right now on a schedule of payments for different renewable energy projects. This schedule is called “Feed in Tariff.” This is where the utility will pay for the extra electricity “fed in” by type of electricity supplied—solar, hydro, wind, etc.

The Energy Return on Investment for hydro projects is estimated to be 100 to 1. We should seriously consider bringing more hydroelectric on line on the Hamakua Coast.

This project is financed by the Department of Agriculture farm loan program. When I got back from the Peak Oil conference in Houston in 2007, I initiated a legislative bill that set up a special farm loan program in the Department of Agriculture just for renewable energy projects.

We will participate in a demonstration project that will generate nitrogen from hydrolysis using our hydro power. We will use the nitrogen in two ways –for fertilizer, and for running internal combustion engine farm equipment.

I also plan to get an electric car that I can plug in at the farm. We plan to let our workers plug in electric cars at the farm, as well. Exciting things going on!