Some general impressions I got from the recent Asia Pacific
Clean Energy Summit and Expo:

• Sofar, I get the impression that the new HECO transition team is made up of very competent people, and the utility is in good hands. I work with Dave Waller on the biofuel foundation and he is good at what he does and is a very considerate and professional person. I have only heard Scott Seu speak, but I was very impressed at his breadth of knowledge and how he
  handles himself. I sat next to Colton Ching at lunch and liked him immediately. He is a person with lots of work experience. Most impressive to me was his belief that this is about people, not only things. I asked him a lot of questions and I was not surprised when he told me Robbie Alm was his mentor. Of course. He and Scott are two-thirds of the clean energy team. Robert Young is another very impressive professional on HECO’s team. I would love to meet the rest of the team, and I’m sure they’re all very good at what they do. HECO is in good hands.

• [Recently I wrote about having lost confidence in HECO and
  the path it has taken. The new HECO people are good at what they do and they will do a good job for the people of O‘ahu. It is the Board of Directors that has a fiduciary duty to stock holders, which sometimes conflicts with the interests of rate payers. So it is the Board of Directors we are at issue with — not the other folks. It isn’t personal. I think we could work it out if we sat down and talked story.]

• Ted Peck and his gang put on an excellent conference. I was very impressed.

• The Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, the Navy and the Department of Defense have many, many projects going on. I was surprised at how many. The military approaches things in a very systematic and professional manner. They know what they are doing.

• Senator Fred Hemmings spoke about mini-nuclear stations for the future, and it sounded very reasonable. He said there have been 18 nuclear reactors on O‘ahu, on ships and submarines, for many years. It was safe and all that was needed was to disburse the units where you wanted. Maybe bury it in the ground for safety. It sounded reasonable, especially for O‘ahu, where an alternative base power to oil is not yet available.

• An algae spokesperson spoke about the progress his company is making. He said that the third stage target for algae biodiesel would be priced at $3 per gallon. And the second stage algae biodiesel would be priced at $2 per gallon. I was impressed. Later, at the Expo, chatted with Kelly King of Pacific Biodiesel, who told me that she would pay $500 for the first gallon of algae biofuel that was actually produced. Hmmm.

• Now that I have actually seen a hydrogen car, I would like to see a fleet of hydrogen fueling stations around the Big Island. It could be fueled by hydrogen made using electricity from cheap “off peak” geothermal energy. It would be much cheaper than the hydrogen made from petroleum on O‘ahu.

• It reminded me that HELCO, led by Jay Ignacio, is also a top-flight company made up of first class, competent people. I was very impressed when we toured the command center and Lisa Danglemaier related how they want to get solar data; but instead of buying a very expensive system, they put one together from off-the-shelf materials. I am very impressed by this kind of ingenuity.

• The Solar Guy grabbed me for a quick interview for the ‘Olelo Channel. It must have been interesting, because he would like for us to do a radio interview next.

• But there are no magic bullets. I am more convinced than ever that we need to deliberately and systematically incorporate geothermal for the Big Island grid.