I visited Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) yesterday. It is located past Lava Tree Park, approximately a half mile beyond the “Y” on the way to Kapoho. The property consists of about 500 acres, and the actual production facilities stand on about 35 acres.
Several things impressed me. There are no smoke stacks, and it is an entirely closed system. There are video cameras and monitors to keep track of the environmental quality. And it is set up to be redundant. There are several injection wells and several production wells, each of which can be shut down for maintenance or in an emergency.
How it works: Steam and water come up from the ground, the steam spins a turbine, and then, together with the water and noncondensable gasses, it is reinjected back into the ground.
Very straightforward.
Although I am no engineer, I could tell that in its basic elements it is like the HELCO plant next to Lili‘uokalani Park. The essential difference is that there is no need for oil to make the electricity, and there is no smoke.
I estimate it must cost 1/3 more to build a geothermal plant than it does a conventional, diesel plant—give or take. But a geothermal plant’s daily operating costs must be substantially cheaper, because it doesn’t bear the cost of having to burn oil.
I know firsthand how expensive this can be. We used to run a smoky diesel generator to pump water for our farm. Now we gravity flow the water instead, and we smile all the time. This is the difference between geothermal- and diesel-fired electric plants.
In the last 15 years, the geothermal power plant has saved Hawai‘i from burning more than 5.5 million barrels of fossil fuel. Imagine if that oil had cost $100 per barrel; this would be a half billion dollars in saved oil purchases.
But it’s a little more complicated than that. It doesn’t matter if PGV is very cost effective because this cost is not passed to Hawai‘i’s people, nor to HELCO. And PGV is not happy. It would rather sell power at a cheaper rate and be able to expand its production.
How can it be that PGV wants to sell electricity cheaper, but cannot as regulations prevent HELCO from making any money at all on geothermal electricity? The result is that we cannot expand geothermal power, even if it’s the answer to our energy cost problems and we all want it.
Who’s in charge here?
I thought I heard the governor say, in her State of the State address yesterday, that she is trying to allow government agencies to buy power from independent power producers. It seems to me that the County Board of Water Supply, which is one of HELCO’s largest customers, and OHA, at Banyan Drive, will want to buy their power—much cheaper—from Puna Geothermal. People will be thrilled to see their “fuel adjustment” disappear!