Category Archives: Renewable Energy Sources

Biofuel, Food Security, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Kudos to the PUC!

The recent PUC decision denying a HECO/Aina Koa Pono biofuel contract was a landmark decision. Kudos to the PUC for understanding precisely what was at stake. Very impressive!!

See this Big Island Video News story about the decision.

My observations:

  • The process was not transparent, and people had a difficult time understanding the issues.
  • Cellulosic biofuels is not proven technology, so it’s high risk.
  • Filling oil tanks with long term biofuel contracts would block cheaper alternatives, like geothermal, from gaining critical mass.
  • Ratepayers would have financed the risk. And ratepayers are not venture capitalists.
  • Businesses would have seen their electricity rates go higher than they were with electricity generated by oil, making their products even less competitive to mainland competition. And food security would have suffered.
  • Social consequences would have included fewer government services, less charitable giving and more working homeless. It would have put stress on our spirit of aloha.

We can and must do better for our future generations. As Steve Jobs always said, “We need to think different!”

Not, no can, CAN!

Biofuel, Renewable Energy Sources

Compliments to Gov. Abercrombie for Selecting Wise PUC Commissioners

The PUC’s decision Thursday, which denied Aina Koa Pono’s biofuel contract with HELCO, is significant for several reasons.

To me, most significant is that the PUC is not going to let HECO force ratepayers to be the bridge financier.

Hawaii PUC denies HECO, Aina Koa Pono application

September 29, 2011 

HONOLULU, Hawaii: In a decision that was handed down today, the Hawaii Public Utility Commission voted to deny the HECO companies’ application for approval of the biodiesel supply contract with Aina Koa Pono, rendering moot the application to establish a biofuel surcharge to help cover costs. Read the rest

Farmers take the commonsense approach – We look for others that have solved the technical problems, and just copy. Save money, less risk.

Articles, Food Security, Games, Renewable Energy Sources

Richard Ha at Civil Beat

Civil Beat asked Richard to write some opinion pieces for them, and his 3-part series on energy and food security in Hawai‘i is running right now. You can click the titles to read the whole article.

Part 1:

Trying to be Safe by Doing Nothing is No Longer Safe 

I am Richard Ha, chairman of the board of Ku‘oko‘a. Ku‘oko‘a is trying to align the needs of Hawai‘i’s people with the needs of the electrical utility.

I want to start by telling you who I am and what my values are. My mom is Okinawan, Higa from Moloka‘i, and my Pop was half Korean and half Hawaiian. His mother was Leihulu Kamahele. Our family land was down the beach at Maku‘u in Puna. We were very poor but didn’t know it….

 Read the rest

Part 2:

Expensive Electricity Threatens Hawaii’s Food Security

At the 2010 Peak Oil conference, held in Washington, D.C., a speaker pointed to a graph showing that oil is used for a very small portion of the U.S. mainland’s production of electricity.

He pointed out that Hawai‘i is responsible for a huge portion of the nation’s oil use. The U.S. mainland uses oil for less than 10 percent of its electrical generation, while Hawai‘i depends on oil for 76 percent of its electrical generation. So when oil prices rise, Hawai‘i’s electricity ratepayers are significantly more affected than mainland electricity ratepayers.

And as oil prices rise, any imported mainland product that has electricity usage imbedded in its production has a cost advantage over the same product produced in Hawai‘i. This is true for ice cream, bakery products and even jams and jellies….

Read the rest

Part 3:

What Works, Works

Farmers cut straight to the chase. We farmers are concerned about survival, the bottom line, people and the environment.

Although we do support maximizing other technologies available to us in Hawai‘i, here I am talking about “base power” electricity – stable, steady power. Eighty percent of our electricity needs to be stable, steady base power. Base power has the biggest impact on our electricity bills….

Read the rest

Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

What Kuokoa is All About

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The Ku‘oko‘a Board of Directors recently briefed a group of influential people on what we are all about.

Former CIA Director Jim Woolsey talked about our dependency on oil, and its national security implications. He talked about Hawai‘i’s situation – that we have the potential to free ourselves from the tyranny of oil – and explained that this possibility is what made him want to be involved.

Former U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary TJ Glauthier, who brings a high level of experience to our team, spoke about the Ku‘oko‘a business plan, and said that the preliminary numbers do work.

Former Harvard Professor of Entrepreneurship, and current UH Shidler College of Professor, Rob Robinson acted as moderator. He explained why the Ku‘oko‘a model, which emphasizes a low cost of electricity, is so important to the future of Hawai‘i.

Venture Capitalist Roald Marth, who is also CEO of Ku‘oko‘a, spoke about how he came to be involved in the energy issue, and how he has committed his life to freeing Hawai‘i from fossil fuel. Ro has been relentless in his efforts.

Former Hawai‘i State Energy Administrator Ted Peck walked everyone through the basic Ku‘oko‘a plan.

It’s a powerful team. At the end, there was a Q&A period, during which board members answered questions and addressed comments from the audience.

I spoke first, and here is what I said:

Aloha Everyone,

I am Richard Ha, Chairman of the Board of Ku‘oko‘a. Ku‘oko‘a is trying to align the needs of the people with the needs of the utility.

I am a farmer, so I tend to go straight to the essential elements. The world has been using three times the oil it has been finding for the last 30 years. In 2003, oil price was between 20 and 30 per barrel. The price rose steadily, yet the supply did not increase. Sooner or later we will start to drop down the backside of the oil supply curve.  

In addition, because it is taking more energy to get energy, the net energy left over to do work will also decline. And on top of this, China and India’s people cannot wait to jump in their cars to drive to McDonalds. And the oil exporting nations have to use more oil for their own people, or they will get thrown out of office.

All these things occurring simultaneously tell us that the safety of the status quo, where Hawai‘i relies on oil for 76 percent of its electricity generation, is increasingly not safe.

Since we are talking story here, I want to tell you who I am and what my values are. Mom is Okinawan, Higa from Molokai. Pop’s father was Korean – Ha, and his mom was Leihulu Kamahele. Her mom was Meleana Kamoe Kamahele and her dad was Frank Kamahele. Our family land was down the beach at Maku‘u, in Puna.

We were very poor, but we didn’t know it. Pop would tell stories at the dinner table where he would talk about impossible situations, impossible odds.

Then he would pound the table and point in the air. “Not, no can. CAN!”

And he would say, “There are a thousand reasons why no can. I only looking for the one reason why can.” He told us to find three solutions for every problem, and then find one more just in case. He finished 6th grade but he was a wise man.

I was a kolohe kid growing up. I went to UH Manoa, where I flunked out. Too many places to go, people to see and beers to drink. I was drafted and applied to go to Officers’ Candidate School, and then I volunteered to go to Vietnam. Ended up walking in the jungle with 100 other soldiers. If we got into trouble there was no one close enough to help us. The unwritten rule was that we all come back or no one comes back. I liked that and have kept that attitude ever since.

I went back to UH and majored in accounting so I could keep score when I went into business. Pop asked if I would come back and help to run the family chicken farm. I came back and saw an opportunity to grow bananas but I had no money.

“Not, no can. CAN!” So we traded chicken manure for banana keiki. By questioning everything, looking into the future and forcing change, we were able to survive in farming for more than 30 years. We farm 600 fee simple acres outside of Hilo with 60 workers. It just goes to show that anything is possible.

We are not afraid to try stuff. I was given the University of Hawai‘i College of Business’s “Hall of Honor” award, as well the UH’s Distinguished Graduate award, for my role in bringing theThirty Meter Telescope to the Big Island. That is a $1.3 billion project, and it was a foregone conclusion that it was going to Chile until we went to work engaging our Big Island community here. It’s now coming to the point in the legal process where construction can begin in a short time.

Our family’s company was the first banana company in the world to be certified ECO-OK by the Rainforest Alliance, the largest third party certifying organization. That was reported widely in the banana producing areas of Central and South America. In fact, they scrambled to find a farm in Costa Rica who could be certified along with us, so we both could say we were first in the world. And it had a big influence in changing the environmental behavior of the Doles, Chiquitas and Del Montes.

We were one of six national finalists for the SARE award, a sustainable production award open to all farms in the nation. I mention all these things because we live by the spirit, “Not, no can. CAN!” 

One day five years ago, we realized that our farming supply costs had been steadily rising, and found that it was all due to oil. So I went to go learn about oil so we could reposition our company for the future. I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend three Association for the Study of Peak Oil conferences.

The main lesson there was that the world had been using two to three times the oil it had been finding for the last 30 years, and that soon, the game will be up.

Coming back to Hawai‘i, we repositioned our farm and soon we start construction of a hydroelectric plant that will take us completely off the grid.

Several years went by, and then I met Ro Marth and we embarked on this project. It made total sense to me. First it was Ro, myself and Ted Peck. The paper called us the government bureaucrat, the tomato farmer and the motivational speaker. It was kind of humorous.

We did not let ourselves get distracted, but went about doing our work – first by putting our board together. We needed to be credible with Wall Street, Bishop Street and Kinoole Street. Especially Kinoole Street. This needed to be a company that the rubbah slippah folks would see as local, and, preferably, their own.

It’s all about people, and we have put together a strong team. We have incredibly smart, caring and courageous people. Our diversity is what gives us our strength, and also we watch each other’s backs. And we would love for courageous folks, who can see a brighter future for Hawai‘i, to join us.

Ro and I visited Iceland recently. Iceland has managed to make itself energy secure and food secure by using cheap geothermal and hydro. Its electricity costs are less than half of ours. In Iceland, they export energy in the form of aluminum, and that allows them to buy food. The cheap-energy sector of their economy is helping the country recover from its banking sectors meltdown. Low cost energy makes them competitive with the rest of the world. Not high cost energy.

Mayor Kenoi will soon sign a sister city document with the Mayor of Ormoc City in the Phillipines. They have the same population as the Big Island, but Ormoc City produces 700 MW of electricity with its geothermal, compared to our 30MW.

We are very fortunate to have geothermal on the Big Island. It costs less than 10 cents/kWh to generate electricity from geothermal, while it costs more than 20 cents/kWh to generate electricity from oil.

Can we find the solution to our energy problems while taking care of the rubbah slippah folks too? It’s about the cost of energy. If we choose an expensive alternative for electricity, we know that folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder will get their lights turned off first. Leaving the rubbah slippah folks behind should not be an option. If we try hard enough to find solutions, we should be able to take care of everyone.

One of our solutions is to replace oil with geothermal as base load for the generation of electricity. One day, I asked Jim Kauahikaua, Chief Scientist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, “Eh Jim, how long the Big Island will be over the hot spot?” He said, “Between 500,000 and a million years.” I thought to myself, “That should be long enough.”

In modern Hawaiian history, the economy has taken taken taken and the culture has given, given, given. We have a unique opportunity now where the economy can give and the culture can receive. If we can stabilize energy costs at a low level, we will become more competitive to the rest of the world as oil prices rise and our people’s standard of living will rise. We can address the energy problem and take care of the rubbah slippah folks too.

We can look forward to handing our children and their children’s children a brighter tomorrow.

We are looking for like-minded, brave folks to join us and help bring about the kinds of change that will take all of us into a brighter future.

As my Pop used to say: “Not, no can. CAN!”

Food Security, Renewable Energy Sources

Definitions: Food Security vs. Food Self-Sufficiency

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At our last Board of Agriculture meeting, Matthew Loke, Chief Economist for the Department of Agriculture, differentiated between “food security” and “food self-sufficiency.”

“Food security” means being able to get adequate and sufficient food, regardless of where it comes from. These days, it comes from all over the world. We are able to buy food from all over because money comes into our economy from the outside, with military spending and tourism being primary contributors. That provides us with money to pay for general services to our society and to buy our food.

“Food self-sufficiency” is when we grow all the food we need, right here at home.

As long as our economy functions smoothly, we have food security. Just go to your local grocery store and look at the variety of foodstuffs – from fruits to cereal to canned goods.

Food self-sufficiency is desirable as a hedge against when the economic supply lines start being challenged, at which time it’s more desirable to have our food sourced close to home. More and more, it’s looking like that time is coming.

Since we operate mainly as a market economy, we are influenced by the cost of producing that food. The concept “If the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm” is a very important aspect of fresh food self-sufficiency.

We have very good resources and we need to use them in a smart, cost-effective way. The main reason we in Hawai‘i are lucky as we move toward self-sufficiency is the abundant sun energy we have. Sun combined with water availability gives us the primary input to growing stuff. And if we produce it close to where it is consumed, we save on transportation costs.

Hawaiians figured all this out many centuries ago. Here we are trying to solve the same problems all over again today.

What works, works.

Renewable Energy Sources

“How Could I Not Know This?!”

Noe Kalipi also spoke at the Council of Native Hawaiians conference last week.

I knew Noe was on Senator Akaka’s staff for many years, and I thought she was a wonderful Hilo girl, very unassuming and nice.

But then I saw her in action, in Washington D.C., when we went up to see TJ Glauthier and Jim Woolsey. She is at home in Washington, and can jab elbows with the best. Who would have imagined that she was in the Airborne Judge Advocate Corp?

This Hilo girl was an Army lawyer and also jumped out of airplanes.

This is the speech she gave:

Why I Joined Kuokoa

I was born and raised in Hilo and spent 18 years in D.C., going to school, serving in the U.S. Army, and working on Capitol Hill for Senator Akaka. I moved back to Hilo in 2006 with my husband, Gaylen, who is from Molokai, to raise our two daughters, Hauoli and Kuuipo, in Hilo. It was important to us that they grow up in Hawaii, in our culture, exposed to the way we think, the way we live, and the way we do things in Hawaii. 

I worked as the Government & Community Relations Director for First Wind. It was in THAT job where my eyes were opened to how dependent Hawaii is on fossil fuels and how DANGEROUS that is for our future, for our children’s future, for our moopuna’s future. Not blow up dangerous — dangerous because we have no control over the pricing for the one thing that we rely on for one of our most basic needs: energy.

I thought to myself, how could I not know this — I had been was working at the top levels of government in Washington DC!  

It’s because I took things for granted. My thought process was – I need lights, turn on the switch; I need gas – go to the gas station – I need food – go to the store. I never thought about what made the lights go on or how the gas and food got to the store. I never thought about WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENS AND THE BARGES CAN’T COME TO HAWAII, and not just because we have a tsunami or hurricane, what about if we run out of oil?

Knowledge can be a blessing and it can be a burden. Once our eyes are opened to issues such as energy and food security then we have the kuleana to figure out how to address it. 

The good news is that we live in Hawaii. We have the resources, the tools, to fix this situation. We have land and water to grow food, we have indigenous resources wind, solar, ocean, water, geothermal to generate electricity.

But most importantly, we have us, the indigenous peoples who have lived here for 2000 years,  who have the moolelo, the history, of this place.  We can look back to our history to figure out how we can go forward, embracing technology and finding solutions that are based and shaped by the knowledge of our incredibly scientific ancestors. As someone told me yesterday, we had the first light switch BEFORE THE WHITE HOUSE. 

This means not only generating electricity but conserving and preserving our resources — turn off the lights, use energy efficient appliances, reuse, reduce, recycle.

What scares me is that this is not a new issue — people were talking about this when I was five years old — back in 1975 — how we had to get off of oil and use our resources. 

I’m 41 years old. When are we going to stop talking and start doing?

So . . .when I learned about the Kuokoa plan from Richard Ha, our Chairman, I said YAY!! FINALLY — a collaborative way to do what we — as the box & rope, grassroots, rubbah slippah folks — whatever you want to call us — know what needs to be done. We can stop closing our eyes and pretending that someone else will take care of it. We can stop thinking that this is too hard, too complicated, too overwhelming.

As Richard said, get thousand reasons why no can, we need to focus on finding the ways that CAN. I thought, well, if HE, then I can, so WE GO

And that is why Kuokoa is at this convention. We need Native Hawaiians to lead this effort — WHY? Because this is OUR homeland.

This is a way to shift the paradigm — shift the way things are done. Base the action on culture, on history, on the knowledge that our ancestors left to us.  

But Ramsay, Richard, and I cannot do it alone. Between the three of us, we know many of you in the audience and we hope that you will invite us to talk story with you so that we can explain what we are trying to do in more detail and to ask for you to join us in this effort. Kuokoa cannot succeed without you — because we need everyone working with us if we are going to make the changes that need to be done to secure Hawaii’s energy independence.

Kuokoa’s plan is simple — we build a clean tech industry in Hawaii and in that process we will:

– transform the electrical grid so that instead of running mainly on imported fossil fuel, it will use Hawaii’s indigenous resources: geothermal, wind, solar, water, ocean, biomass, etc. This stops our electricity prices from rising with oil prices.

– make electric vehicles a reality in Hawaii – this stops us from being slaves to the price of gas — it’s $5.49 a gallon on Molokai — what is going to happen when oil goes up further?

– to utilize excess electricity to create energy exports — hydrogen, for example, which can be exported as ammonia which sells globally and can be used for farming

In doing this, we make our universities and our schools the best schools in science, technology, research and development AND we make Hawaii the place to look to learn how to utilize indigenous resources in a culturally appropriate AND environmentally sensitive way.

In doing this, we create jobs and companies. We create opportunities for communities participate — and hopefully– to own the companies that are going to be created to make this plan successful. Let the Hawaiians hire the consultants to work for us instead of us always being the consultants for the mainland companies.

It’s not just science.  It’s everything — farming, housing, education, economic development, cultural preservation, hawaiian language, health care –its everything we all are involved in because energy is a basic need — it either drives what we do or it prevents us from doing something. Lights or no lights. Gas or no gas.

All of our policy priorities that we just discussed ASSUMES that we have energy, ASSUMES that we have power. We need to make sure we address this basic need so that the policy goals that we are discussing this morning can truly help us to move forward the way we intend.

We are just three Hawaiians up here — our canoe is very big, and very heavy. We know we cannot paddle by ourselves. We hope you will be willing to pick up a paddle and join us and help us figure out how to get where we know we have to go.

Mahalo.

Geothermal, History, Renewable Energy Sources

My Speech at the Council of Native Hawaiian Advancement Conference

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Noe Kalipi, Ramsay Taum and I – all board members from Ku‘oko‘a – each spoke for five minutes at the Council of Native Hawaiian Advancement conference.

Speech pix2

Noe and Ramsay were just awesome. It’s clear that Ku‘oko‘a is a native Hawaiian company with native Hawaiian sensibilities. The good wishes and warm requests for information were very humbling.

Senator Akaka spoke right before us.

Speech pix1

Here is the speech I gave.

Aloha Everyone,

I am Richard Ha, chairman of the board of Ku‘oko‘a. Ku‘oko‘a is trying to align the needs of the people with the needs of the utility.

I want to start by telling you who I am and what my values are. Mom is Okinawan, Higa from Moloka‘i; Pop’s father was Korean, Ha. My pop’s mom was Leihulu Kamahele. And her mom was Meleana Kamoe Kamahele and her dad was Frank Kamahele. Our family land was down the beach at Maku‘u in Puna. We were very poor but didn’t know it.

Pop would tell stories at the dinner table. He would talk about impossible situations, impossible odds. Then he would pound the table and point in the air. “Not, no can. CAN!”

And he would say, “There are a thousand reasons why no can. I only looking for the one reason why ‘Can.’”

He told us to find three solutions for every problem, and then find one more just in case. He only finished sixth grade, but he was a wise man.

I was a kolohe kid growing up. I went to UH Manoa, where I flunked out. Too many places to go, people to see and beers to drink. I was drafted, and applied to go to Officers Candidate School, and then I volunteered to go to Vietnam. Ended up walking in the jungle with a hundred other soldiers. If we got into trouble there was no one close enough to help us. The unwritten rule was that we all come back, or no one comes back. I liked that and kept that attitude ever since.

I went back to UH and majored in accounting so I could keep score when I went into business. Pop asked if I would come back and help run the family chicken farm. I came back and saw an opportunity to grow bananas, but I had no money.

“Not, no can, CAN!” so we traded chicken manure for banana pulapula. By questioning everything, looking into the future and forcing change we have been able to survive in farming for more than 30 years.

We farm 600 fee simple acres with 60 workers.  Five years ago, we noticed supply costs had been steadily rising, and we found it was all due to oil. I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend three Peak Oil conferences. I went to learn about oil so that we could position our business.

There I found out that the world had been using twice as much oil as it had been finding for the last 30 years. This is a very serious situation. I am stuck with this knowledge and that knowledge has become my kuleana. I know what is likely to happen and so try to find solutions that are good for all of us.

There are truly Native Hawaiian sensitivities embedded in our Ku‘oko‘a team and organization. The board and the team we have put together are the best we could find. Ramsay Taum and Noe Kalipi are members of our board and we will each say a few words. Board members went to Hilo to participate in the festivities for the seven vaka that came up from the south. We felt that it was important.

Right now there are no guidelines to choose the low-cost, proven technology solution that eases the pressure on the rubbah slippah folks. We can do this. You folks all know the consequence of rising cost of energy, water, school lunches, etc. It is the folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder who will get their lights turned off first. Too often they are Hawaiians.

Iceland has managed to make themselves energy secure and food secure. Their electricity costs are less than half of ours. Can we find the solution to our energy problems while taking care of the rubbah slippah folks too? Leaving them behind is not an option. If we search for the solution, if we ask the question, we can find the answer.

In modern Hawaiian history, the economy has taken taken taken and the culture has given, given, given. We have a unique opportunity now where the economy can give and the culture can receive. If we can stabilize energy costs at a low level, as oil prices rise we will become more competitive to the rest of the world and our people’s standard of living will rise. We can address the energy problem and take care of the rubbah slippah folks too.

As Pop used to say: “Not ‘no can;’ ‘CAN!’”

Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

Forcing the Change

Shall we take the fork in the road that leads us to Hawaiian self-fulfillment?

Dieter Paulmann and the seven vaka showed how it is possible to utilize ancient knowledge to transform fossil fuel transportation on the ocean to one that is fossil fuel-free. They took ancient methods and joined them with modern technolog, strengthening up the masts and using GPS, solar panels and auxiliary electric motors. Thus equipped, these crafts can maneuver better in port. And there’s lots more. Hopefully this will help our Pacific brothers and sisters cope with rising oil prices.

Now Dieter wants to headquarter his operation Okeanos here in Hawai‘i.

6a00d8341c02ce53ef014e8977cfa8970d

Volkswagon is envisioning a vehicle that is zero emission if it aligned with a zero emission electricity source. In Hawai‘i, we have geothermal, wind and solar. It’s a one-seater for now, but it’s the thought process, the moving toward a desired future, that’s important.

VW TO UNVEIL SINGLE-SEAT ELECTRIC CAR

By John Reed and Chris Bryant in Wolfsburg The Financial Times.

Volkswagen is poised to unveil a single-seat, ultra-frugal, zero-emission electric car. The German carmaker also plans to offer a “full-service package” for customers of its electric cars by selling them power from renewable sources, Jürgen Leohold, head of research, told the Financial Times.

VW’s one-seat concept or experimental car will showcase the carmaker’s ambition to build vehicles that generate no carbon dioxide, even on a “well-to-wheel” calculation that takes into account the carbon dioxide generatedby power plants. Read the rest here

And our visit to Iceland showed us how a people can free them selves from fossil fuel electricity generation, and make themselves food secure in the process.

All these ideas converge on Hawai‘i.

We take cultural concerns very seriously; having a pono approach to this whole business is critical to us. At its most basic level, going geothermal has to be about taking care of both our Hawai‘i environment – which we can do – and our people. Using geothermal means that our people will be able to not only pay their electric and other bills, but also start getting ahead. Respect for the land and for the people: Those are cultural moves right there.

We must force change here, so we can embrace these visionary ideas and collaborate with these people. The result can be the elevation of the standard of living for future generations.

Maybe we can even incorporate Bhutan’s measurement of standard of living – they measure Gross National Happiness there.

Get thousand reasons why no can. We’re looking for the one reason why CAN!

Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

Fork in the Road

We are coming to a fork in the road. Which way do we want to go?  

Cost of Electricity Insert1
Cost of Electricity Insert2
If we stay on our present course, represented above by the blue line, electricity costs will keep on rising. The graph assumes a modest doubling of oil prices every 15 years, but it might be even more than double.

If we stay on the present path, we will have an increasingly difficult time paying our bills. Schools will pay more money for electricity, and less for education. Supermarkets will pay more for refrigeration, and farmers will get less for their produce. The hotel industry will be hit with higher electricity bills and fewer tourists. Small businesses will have a tougher time. More people will be homeless. And it will be the folks who can least afford it that will end up getting their lights turned off.

On the other hand, following the Ku‘oko‘a ala kai (path), where we use more geothermal as our primary base power, we can go to a place where we use all the renewable energy available to us and electricity costs stabilize. (See the red line above.) Our schools will be comfortable for our keiki to learn in. People will have more work opportunities and we will have fewer homeless people. Because our energy costs will be stable and reasonably priced, we can become competitive in many different areas of production. People will have more money in their pockets and so they will support local farmers, and more and younger farmers will start to grow things.

And because we helped each other to take this positive, renewable energy fork in the road, we will aloha each other.

In the uncertain future that is fast approaching, we will need to have stronger communities, we’ll need to make more friends and we will need to stay closer to our families. The Ku‘oko‘a path will lead us there.

Biofuel, Food Security, Geothermal, Iceland, Renewable Energy Sources

Iceland, In Conclusion

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I want to conclude my “Iceland Series” by pointing out something very simple and straightforward that they have learned in Iceland and put into practice, but that we in Hawai‘i have not:

Cheap and proven technology, and clean energy projects, protect an economy from oil crises.

If what the International Energy Association says is true – that we have come to the end of cheap oil – then the bottom line is that by decoupling from expensive oil, we protect ourselves. It is the cost that’s important, not the color or anything else.

In Hawai‘i, we are trying to replace fossil fuel oil with biofuels. But if the replacement is as expensive as oil – which biofuels for electricity generation is – this doesn’t do us any good.

Geothermal, on the other hand, would totally disconnect us from the high cost of energy. It’s the cost that is the most important. And because it’s safer to diversify, we should also maximize our other energy sources, such as wind and solar, without destabilizing the electric grid.

When you go over to Iceland, you see that they have inoculated themselves from rising oil prices. In doing so, they have also made themselves food secure, because their electricity is cheap relative to other sources of energy. For instance, when they export aluminum, which is electricity-intensive, as long as their electricity costs are lower than that of their competitors, they will always have money coming into their economy.

Iceland’s economy depends on cheap energy and fishing as its base. (And Iceland’s tourism increased when the country devalued its currency, so cheap energy had a double benefit.) Hawai‘i’s economy depends on the military and tourism. We need a third leg to give our economy some stability and security.

It was interesting for me to see how a native people, left to their own devices, coped. As of today, Iceland is more energy and food secure than Hawaii! This is why Ku‘oko‘a needs to purchase HEI. The rubbah slippah folks all know this to be true.

Cheap electricity makes an economy competitive in the world. This is where the people’s needs and the utility’s needs should coincide.

Everybody knows that Iceland’s economy crashed in 2008. That happened because they privatized their banking industry, the banks went crazy, and they got caught by the downturn. But because the country has cheap energy, they are pulling out of their recession and the excesses of their banks – while we are struggling to forestall a double dip recession.

This shows us that if you’re in a competitive position relative to energy, and you don’t do anything stupid, you can withstand any oil-induced depression or recession, which is where the world is headed.

Iceland is also concerned about its dependence on fossil fuel for transportation. It has a commercial hydrogen refueling station, and I rode in an SUV powered by methane from municipal waste. They are even looking into making liquid fuels from geothermal electricity and CO2.

Iceland is like a little lab. You go over there and look at the country and say, “Holy smokes! It can be done.”

Now to do it here.