Geothermal

Magnetotelluric Measurements in Hawaii

Geothermal is cheap, proven technology and emits no greenhouse gases. It is firm power, which the electric utility needs for 80 percent of its usage. This is where one can get bang for the buck. Cheap electricity can even be used for transportation.

The opposition to geothermal was very successful in stopping geothermal development. But things are changing. Oil prices doubled from $25 per barrel to $50 per barrel, and then doubled again to $100 per barrel – just in the last 11 years. If electricity and water costs double and double again in the next 11 years, our people will not be able to cope. A $300 monthly electricity bill would be toward $600 and then $1200 in 11 years. That is why we need to move to stable, cheap geothermal as fast as we can.

We have lots of catching up to do. Magnetotelluric (MT) measurements have been used in other parts of the world for decades.

Dr. Don Thomas is the process of getting a grant to implement MT techniques for the whole state. We will need to drill “slim holes” to prove the resource. These slim holes are much like water wells.

Even if one were to hit molten lava, the lava would not come back up the hole and shoot into the air!

We may have more geothermal resources than we even know. On our recent trip to the Philippines, we were told that one of that country’s geothermal energy sources is an extinct volcano 100,000 years old. By contrast, Mauna Kea last erupted 4,500 years ago.

We need good information so we can make sound decisions. We do not have much time.

From Wikipedia:

Resistivity and Magnetotellurics

Magnetotellurics (MT) measurements allow detection of resistivity anomalies associated with productive geothermal structures, including faults and the presence of a cap rock, and allow for estimation of geothermal reservoir temperatures at various depths. MT has successfully contributed to the successful mapping and development of geothermal resources around the world since the early 1980s, including in theU.S.A. and countries located on the Pacific Ring of Fire such as Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Ecuador, and Peru.

Geological materials are generally poor electrical conductors and have a high resistivity. Hydrothermal fluids in the pores and fractures of the earth, however, increase the conductivity of the subsurface material. This change in conductivity is used to map the subsurface geology and estimate the subsurface material composition. Resistivity measurements are made using a series of probes distributed tens to hundreds of meters apart, to detect the electrical response of the Earth to injection of electrical impulses in order to reconstruct the distribution of electrical resistance in the rocks. Since flowing geothermal waters can be detected as zones of low resistance, it is possible to map geothermal resources using such a technique. However, care must be exercised when interpreting low resistivity zones since they may also be caused by changes in rock type and temperature.  Read the rest

Where We Live

Merrie Monarch: The Buzz Has Started

Last night, all of the sudden, Merrie Monarch practice at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium was different. Last week, it was just my daughter’s hālau there in a quiet stadium in the evenings, rehearsing. Now, just three days before the first performances, we arrived to find great activity.

Ti-leaf diplays are wrapped around the railings now, and anthuriums, heliconia and greens sit in arrangements around the stage. Sponsors’ banners were affixed to framework – Mauna Loa Macadamias, Hawaiian Airlines, Big Island Candies. Two women were crouched down behind the bleachers, soaking ti leaves, and braiding ti leaves; they were surrounded by buckets and buckets and buckets of flowers. Clearly they were decorating the place.

The sound people have set up behind the stage and were there, doing what they do. Oficial people walked around, studied the area where the royal court people sit, and talked about last minute repairs.

It wasn’t the quiet place they’d been practicing for days. There were suddenly lots of people, each with the jobs they’re doing, and there was a buzz.

Itʻs nothing, though, like the buzz that will fill that stadium on Wednesday night.

Uncategorized, Where We Live

Merrie Monarch: Intense!

I mentioned last time that my daughter, 8, is dancing in the Merrie Monarch hula festival this year for the first time, and so this is our first experience with what goes into preparations for the big hula event.

The number of practices with her hālau has stepped up a lot. During these last two weeks before their performance, they’ve gone from meeting twice a week, as they do during the year, to practicing most weekdays from two to four hours a day.

As a parent, let me just say WOW. That’s on top of school and homework (finding time for her to do homework is taking a lot of parental ingenuity) and trying to make sure she gets enough sleep at night.

But it’s only for a very short time, and as I watch these kids practice on that stage at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium I think about how very much it’s worth it.

I marvel at how much they are learning. It is huge, and great, how much they are learning about the Hawaiian culture – stories, chant, hula, history, ways of being, ways of learning, respect, continuity, integrity, community, cooperation and more.

And they are also learning how to come together and be a part of the total hālau by dancing with the adults, whom they don’t usually dance with the rest of the year. They are learning confidence, and how to perform in front of 5000 people. They are learning to take direction.

They are learning how to work hard at something that’s important to them. Is there any greater lesson?

These kids are working hard but there are so many smiles at rehearsal. My daughter is loving it. She keeps telling me she likes practicing every day, because she feels herself getting better each day in a way that’s different from when they meet twice a week.

What I love is seeing her take part in something that’s so much bigger than herself, than our usual world, and enjoying it and fitting herself into it so well. What more rewarding thing is there for a parent to see than their young child successfully taking on a big challenge?

A reporter and videographer from Honolulu were at the stadium and taped part of their rehearsal for the television news last night. It’s starting!

Stay tuned and I’ll report back again.

Community, Music, Where We Live

Merrie Monarch: Cultural Traditions

1 Comment

I’m not a hula person, but my daughter is and this year is the first year she’s dancing in the annual Merrie Monarch hula festival. If you live in Hawai‘i, you know that’s a big deal here. It’s a hula competition held every spring in Hilo, and it’s one that people come to from around the world.

My daughter, who’s 8, is dancing with her hālau on the Hō‘ike (Exhibition) night, and this is the first time I’m experiencing firsthand what all goes into preparing for the Merrie Monarch.
We’ve been working on her costume, which started with each parent and child going into the forest and cutting down a hau tree. Wow! Pretty intense, but so interesting!
(This blog talks a lot about sustainability, and if you don’t live here that might sound unsustainable to you. Please note that hau trees grow like weeds. I don’t think you could wipe out the hau even if you tried.)
I have since learned how to strip the bark, clean it, and separate the layers, so we can braid it into cordage that we’re using in her costume.
Similarly, we have gathered lau hala – the leaves of the hala tree – and trimmed and cleaned them. When I mentioned that I got a box-type stripper – it lets you strip hala leaves to an even width so you can weave them or use them to make hula implements, for instance, as below – Richard said it makes him think of his grandmother’s house where there were always rolls (kūka‘a) of prepped lau hala.
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It was always the same in this house where I live, too, which was my grandmother’s home and her mother’s before her, and where there used to be hula and weaving and more.
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Somehow that managed to skip a couple generations, but I love that once again, this house is sometimes filled with hula and ‘oli (chanting), and that rolls of lau hala and skeins of handmade hau cordage and handmade hula implements, like this ‘ulī‘ulī we made, again fill our home.

Travel

Dispatches from the Philippines: Looking Back at Our Trip

There were multiple missions going on during our trip to the Philippines. Rose Bautista, Hawai‘i County’s immigration specialist, was our contact person as the people on our trip went back and forth. I’d known of her but never met her, and it was nice to meet her in person. She and Paulette Cainglit were constantly working to make sure everything was going smoothly.

Rose arranged for our delegation to meet the folks she connected with at the U.S. Embassy. In my junior high school days, I was a Word War II history buff, and it was very interesting for me to realize that the trial of General Yamashita, the tiger of Malaya, was held in the very room where we were standing.

We met Anthony Mira, who is in charge of the TSA in the Philippines with a task of protecting the U.S. from a specific al Queda plot. We had no idea. He happens to be from Kaua‘i. It made us all feel like we were connected to the world. Then we were briefed by Jesse Robredo, Secretary of the Interior for the Philippines. A very engaging person, he briefed us about how Philippines governance is organized.

We thought that was the end of our second day in Manila but Rose had heard that the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, had just arrived in port and that possibly some of our group could go on board for the welcoming ceremonies.

Well, Rose would not settle for a few of us attending and asked if we all could attend. And she was successful.

Next thing we knew, we were climbing the gangway past Navy people in formation and at attention, who were welcoming us abroad. It was going to be a bigger deal than we had imagined.

USS_blueridge

The U.S. 7th Fleet is everywhere in the Pacific. It makes regular port calls in the Philippines, Korea, Australia, Korea, Guam and Thailand, among other places.

At any given time, there are 60-70 ships, 200-300 aircraft and 40,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel assigned to the fleet. Five of the largest armed forces lie in its area of operation. Half of the world’s population lies in the 7th Fleet’s area of responsibilities. Going up to the deck of the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the 7th Fleet, we could tell it was going to be a big big deal.

Admiral Swift, Commander of the 7th Fleet, made introductory remarks and he mentioned our Hawaiian delegation. He said that he lived in Hawai‘i for a while and so we were ‘ohana.

I was floored that here we were, a small delegation from the Big Island, on the deck of the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, being mentioned in ceremonies in Manila Bay.

More importantly though, was the friendship that the Filipino people hold for Americans. General MacArthur coming ashore in Leyte was not that long ago in people’s memories. You don’t get the emotion from history books. It hit Councilperson Angel Pilago very hard. We all felt it.

Toward the end of the evening, Nitta Pilago corralled all of us for a photo with Admiral Swift. So there we all were around the admiral, doing our best shaka picture. Shameless.

Dutch Kuyper was very much at ease with the senior staff.  Mayor Kenoi found out that he and the Admiral’s wife had both gone to school on the East Coast and so were like classmates. This set the tone for the rest of our trip. Our delegation knew that this was going to be a very special, rewarding, aloha kind of trip.

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Philippines

Dispatch from the Philippines: Visited a Geothermal Production Site

I’m still in Ormoc City. We visited the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) geothermal production site the other day. It generates 700 MW in the Ormoc City area. Its five projects range from 50 to 230 MW in this area, and they have other geothermal projects in other areas.

This is a company that knows what it’s doing. They have expertise in steam field geothermal, the kind that would be most applicable in Hawai‘i.

We toured the Tongonan field, which has a plant capacity of 112 MW. It consists of 17 production wells and 7 reinjection wells. Its source is a volcano that last erupted 100,000 years ago.

EDC is impressive because of its years of experience and because of the social and environmental component of its business philosophy. At EDC, they have been doing this as a part of their business model for many years. They work with the surrounding communities in many areas of mutual benefit – from tax credits, to schooling, reforestation, etc. Each of the plants has a nurse on station. They are very safety conscious.

However, I must note Hawai‘i’s standards for hydrogen sulfide emissions are much more stringent than either the Philippines or the Icelandic operations’.

Puhagan geothermal plant

Palinpinon Geothermal power plant in Sitio Nasulo, Brgy. Puhagan, Valencia, Negros Oriental. Photo by Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. 

The Philippines, which lies alongside the Pacific Ring of Fire, is the second largest geothermal producer in the world. They are actively developing more geothermal there than the 1,400 MW that exists today. Using this stable, low-cost and proven technology resource will pay enormous dividends to its society in the future.

It is clear to see that as the price of oil rises, and they bring more geothermal on line, individual Filipinos will start to see their standard of living rise. If we in Hawai‘i took similar bold steps, our standard of living could also rise.

Philippines, Sustainability, Travel

Dispatch from the Philippines: We Can Learn a Lot from This Place

We left Cebu yesterday via Supercat (that’s a high-speed catamaran). Crossed the water and traveled along the east side of Leyte Island.

The island is like Hawai‘i, with highlands in the middle. It seemed like there were cinder cones all over its surface. Due to its lack of erosion, Leyte looks relatively younger geologically than O‘ahu.

There was a huge welcoming ceremony. Beauty queens, band, dancers, dignitaries and a police escort. Each of us received an Ormoc City medallion to wear around our necks. Serious stuff.

After dropping off our bags, we went to Visayas State University (VSU). Our delegation met with the President of the University and had a briefing, where it was apparent that there are so many things we have in common. I loved the atmosphere and “can-do” attitude.

Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi set the big picture – the Aloha connection. This relationship is a long-term one of friendship.

Dr. Bruce Matthews, Interim Dean of the UH Hilo College of Ag, delivered UH Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney’s message of wanting to set up a student exchange program, and they are trying to achieve a Memo of Understanding on that before we leave. Their “cut through the red tape” attitude was most impressive to me.

VSU is a high-tech learning and research center that is building on what works locally, and then improving on it. For example, carabao – water buffalo – are utilized throughout the islands. But the university is improving the native carabao line by bringing in stock that grows faster in relation to a given time and food supply.

Also, carabao milk is thick, and not as appetizing as cow milk, but by diluting it by 50 percent with water, you end up with the nutrition equivalent of cow’s milk. Hmmm! We sampled carabao yogurt and it was wonderful. And it grows best on Hilo grass. Hilo grass? That is what survives overgrazing and mowing on the Big Island. And it goes on and on.

Third World? We can learn a lot about sustainability from this place. Mayor Billy sets the right tone for a long lasting and mutually beneficial partnership.

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Philippines, Renewable Energy Sources

Dispatch from the Philippines: Why We’re Here

I’m in Ormoc City, Philippines right now. I wrote before about Ormoc City:

…which has an economy similar to the Big Island’s. Its population is close to the population of the Big Island. They produce 700MW of geothermal, which they share by cable with other islands. We only produce 30MW.

The mayor wants to see how they do it. Since “if they can do it, we can do it.”  Read the rest here

 

Ormoc City and the Big Island are now “Sister Cities,” and it’s fascinating to talk with the folks that were instrumental in developing that Sister City relationship.

Ormoc CityIt started when Council Person Angel Pilago, his wife Nitta, and Jane Clement met at Lito Ilagan’s house in Kona to discuss the possibility of forming a Sister City relationship between the Big Island and a city in the Philippines.

From that small get-together, the idea took off. They explored several criteria of compatibility and found several prime candidates.

As the idea started moving forward, Council Person Brittany Smart asked if it was possible to focus on renewable energy. Lito and Jane did some research and came up with Ormoc City as a candidate. Jane checked its website and called the Mayor of Ormoc City, who picked up the phone. She explained the idea, and the Ormoc City Mayor was interested.

With the Visayan Club of Kona sponsoring them, Lito and Jane asked Hawai‘i County Mayor Billy Kenoi for his support in pursuing this initiative. Mayor Kenoi thought it was a good idea, and that it would be great to have it highlighted at the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo (APCESE).

There were various Sister City proposals coming in from the other counties. But due to the hard work of Angel and Nitta Pilago, Lito Ilagan, Jane Clement and the Kona people, this event was the one chosen to be featured at APCESE.

I was there, at the APCESE conference last year, to witness the signing ceremony for the new Sister City affiliation. Randy Kurohara arranged for a group of us meet with some high-level people from the Ormoc City geothermal generating operations. Their safety and dependability record seemed to be very good.

But we needed to see for ourselves.

So the Mayor put together this delegation to do an obligatory reciprocal ceremony and study tour of Ormoc City. Of special interest to me was the fact that Bruce Matthews, Dean of the College of Agriculture of UH Hilo, had been to the Visayas State University and knew about the school’s ag program. He mentioned to me how similar the soils in and around Ormoc City are to the soils of Hamakua.

And, of course, we are here to learn everything we can about how Ormoc City lives with and benefits from geothermal. For a $30,000 investment in this trip to the Phillipines, the county of Hawai‘i is getting great bang for its buck.

Stay tuned for more Dispatches from the Philippines coming soon.

Hawaiian Role Models

Surfboards For Skibs & His Aloha Spirit

Richard Ha writes:

Yesterday I received an email. The East Hawai‘i Cultural Center was looking for Bradda Skibs, because someone had donated 10 surfboards for his program. 

I know Skibs and I wrote about his great "malama ka ‘aina" program before.

I said that what Brudda Skibs is doing is "a manifestation of 'aloha spirit.'"

"This is what is going to keep us together as a society when push comes to shove," he says. "We need to feel a part of our community, make more friends and stay close to our family."

“What we’re doing is real,” says Skibs. “We could change this island. We’re doing it already. That’s our job right now – the future of our children."

Skibs and I are both great-great-great grandsons of Kamahele Nui of Puna.