Big Island, Current Affairs, Geothermal, Renewable Energy Sources

Hydrogen-Powered Big Island Buses

The University of Hawai‘i’s Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) is working on a very interesting project. They are going to use geothermal electricity to generate hydrogen to power two County of Hawai‘i buses.

Because the hydrogen will be stored in cylinders, the process can be turned off and on as necessary to help the electric utility stabilize the grid.

The biggest obstacle to using hydrogen as a transportation fuel is cost. Most of the time, hydrogen is extracted from fossil fuels, whose price will keep on rising.  But hydrogen can also be obtained by electrolysis – running an electric current through water – at the geothermal plant, where costs are low and stable.

The beginnings of this project date back several years to when we did the E Malama ‘Aina sustainability festival. That’s when and where I met Guy Toyama, who had a demonstration hydrolysis project that used electricity generated from a stream in Hakalau.

Guy has a company that does hydrogen projects. He speaks Japanese and he goes all over the world looking for processes that will make Hawai‘i attractive as a place to do hydrogen demonstration projects. He wants to attract major car companies to do their field testing on the Big Island. If you start seeing hydrogen fueling stations pop up on the Big Island, it will likely be because of him.

At the sustainability festival, Kimo Pa, our Hamakua Springs farm manager, and I saw the hydrogen bubbling up from water that had electricity passing through it. I introduced Guy to the folks in Iowa who were exploring making NH3 (ammonia) for fertilizer and for transportation.

That evolved into asking Rick Rocheleau, head of the HNEI, how we could make hydrogen or NH3 from geothermal energy to use for transportation and fertilizer. Rick got interested and allowed this direction to develop. Mitch Ewan, who is in charge of hydrogen projects at HNEI, is the one who conceived this current project.

The following press release announces that HNEI will soon issue a request for proposals to do this project. None of this would have been possible had it not been for the active support of the folks at Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV), Mike Kaleikini, PGV’s plant manager in particular.

Here is the press release:

Honolulu, HI – The Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii (“RCUH”), on behalf of the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (UH-HNEI) plans to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) the week of January 4th 2011 for the supply of a “Turn-Key” hydrogen production and fueling system as a component of a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and US DOE project to demonstrate hydrogen energy systems as a potential grid management tool.   The objective of this project is to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing a hydrogen production and storage system to mitigate the impacts of renewable energy generation intermittency on the Big Island electrical grid. A unique element of the overall program is the demonstration of an electrolyzer as a controllable variable load that can provide grid services such as:

·        Up regulation;

·        Down regulation; and

·        Off-peak load (relieving curtailment of as-available renewable energy).

As background, regulation is responsible for maintaining the frequency of the grid at 60 Hz.  This is accomplished by using a real-time communication signal directly controlled by the grid operator.  The regulation control signal can call for either a positive “Up regulation” or negative “Down regulation” correction.  If load exceeds generation, frequency and voltage drop, and the grid operator relays a signal to generators requesting “Up regulation.”  When generation exceeds load and frequency increases, the grid operator requests “Down Regulation” and asks generators to reduce generation.

In this mode, the electrolyzer would be operated at a production rate that would be determined by the demand for a combination of transportation fuels, auxiliary power, and chemical feedstock production.  The electrolyzer would have the ability to reduce its load (i.e. ramp down) in response to a loss of renewable generation on the system.  This capability to quickly drop load is equivalent to “up-regulation” carried by generating units on the system.  The hydrogen energy system could also provide a quick transient increase in load (i.e. ramp up) that would be useful in loss-of-load events, such as a loss of transmission lines.  For this service, the difference between the maximum capacity of the electrolyzer and the steady state defines the ability of the electrolyzer to provide down regulation.  Hydrogen produced from the system could be used for a variety of value-added products, including use as a transportation fuel for two Ford E-450 shuttle buses operated by the County of Hawaii Mass Transportation Agency.  Optimized use of the electrolyzer and high value products are intended to increase the use of renewable energy resources, and reduce barriers to the introduction of further hydrogen infrastructure in Hawaii.

The RFP is intended to promote open and transparent competition among parties able to design, fabricate, and install the system at a geothermal plant on the Big Island of Hawaii.  A key design driver is the ability for remote monitoring and control of the system over the Internet.  This RFP will be technology neutral and any type of electrolyzer i.e Alkaline or Solid Polymer Electrolyte may be proposed.  Proposers may include teams comprised of systems integrators and electrolyzer manufacturers.  A primary focus of this program is rapid delivery and installation of equipment with a target operational readiness date of August 30th, 2011.  When released, the RFP and accompanying information will be published at http://www.hnei.hawaii.edu.  Any prospective offeror desiring an explanation or interpretation of the RFP must request it in writing (emailed to: Mitch Ewan at ewan@hawaii.edu) no later than January 31st, 2011 with the subject line “RFP for Turn-Key Hydrogen System.”  It is planned to conduct a bidders meeting and / or webinar in Washington DC on January 18th, 2011.  Proposals must be received by RCUH no later than 4:00 PM HST, February 15th, 2011.

Electric Cars, Geothermal, Peak Oil

Planning For The Future

From Green Car Congress (blog subtitle: Energy, Technologies, Issues and Policies for Sustainable Mobility):

Seoul Metropolitan Government has set a goal of putting a total of 120,000 electric vehicles in use in the city by 2020, which will account for 50% of all public transport vehicles, 10% of sedans and 1% of trucks and vans. Read the rest

Governments and individuals around the world are planning for a post-Peak Oil economy.

Here in Hawai‘i, geothermal – Hawai‘i’s indigenous resource – is a gift to the Hawaiian people. It is proven technology, and it can lower and stabilize electric rates for the folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

Peak Oil

The Perfect Trade

When the stock market has it dead wrong, misprices assets and you can take advantage, that’s the perfect trade. Listen to this Financial Sense audio to find out how.

Based on the flood of information this year describing the peaking of oil supplies, there is no doubt that oil supplies are going to drop and keep on dropping. Wouldn’t you expect that the price of oil five years out would be much higher than today’s price?

Right now, oil for next December (2011) is priced at $91.60. And we know that oil supplies will get tighter. Right? Wouldn’t you expect higher prices in the future?

Then how come the price for oil in December 2015 is predicted at $90.26? That’s a dollar and thirty four cents cheaper than the price predicted for December 2011.

The market is telling us that oil is going to be cheaper in the future. Huh? Where can I bet against that?

Listen to the audio.

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil

Stocking Up On Toilet Paper

What will happen when we hit Peak Oil? Probably the same thing that happens every time we hear about a dock strike: People will run out and buy three shopping carts of toilet paper.

I think that when we realize world oil supplies are starting to decline, never to recover, prices will become very volatile. Lloyds of London recently published a white paper that warns of $200 oil by 2013.

Inexpensive geothermal for electricity is something that makes sense.

Biofuels-to-electricity is not a good idea. One would have to pay a steep premium to get farmers to grow biofuels.

Next time you hear or see folks talking up biofuels, count the number of farmers in the room. Farmers know the numbers do not come out. This is not rocket science; just plain old common sense.

From the Post Carbon Institute:

It’s Official: The Economy Is Set To Starve

Posted Nov 24, 2010 by Chris Martenson

Part I: It’s the End of the Oil As We Know It…

Once a year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) releases its World Energy Outlook (WEO), and it’s our tradition here at ChrisMartenson.com to review it.  A lot of articles have already been written on the WEO 2010 report, and I don’t wish to tread an already well-worn path, but the subject is just too important to leave relegate to a single week of attention. 

Because some people will only read the first two paragraphs, let me get a couple of conclusions out right up front.  You need to pay close attention to Peak Oil, and you need to begin adjusting, because it has already happened.  The first conclusion is mine; the second belongs to the IEA. 

Okay, it’s not quite as simple as that; there are a few complexities involved that require us to dig a bit deeper and to be sure our terms and definitions are clear so that we are talking about the same things. Read the rest

Company News

Selling an Easement at the Farm

The other day there was a front page article in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald about our attempt to sell an agricultural easement at the farm.

We wrote about this in a blog post earlier this year.

Our grandson Kapono has just started working with us on the farm. We have four generations working on the farm now, and I could not be happier. I would like to keep the farm, with its unique set of resources, intact, so it can continue providing food into perpetuity. Most farmers sell their land when they are ready to retire. We are only selling the development rights, so that this land can be kept in agriculture.

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil

California’s New Move Re: ‘Climate Law’

California has just adopted a “cap-and-trade” system to cap greenhouse gases.
Sooner or later, Hawai‘i will also need to address the problem of the greenhouse gases emitted by our electric utilities. They emit greenhouse gases whether they burn fossil fuel or biofuel.
Geothermal power emits no greenhouse gases.

California Scheduled To Adopt Cap-And-Trade Rules

By Cassandra Sweet Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES  
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)-California regulators are scheduled Thursday to adopt the nation’s first large-scale cap-and-trade program for greenhouse-gas emissions as part of the state’s four-year-old climate law. 

Under the proposed rules, scheduled to start in 2012, the state Air Resources Board would place a limit, or cap, on greenhouse-gas emissions for the state that would decline over time. Power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide and can’t cut their emissions by the required amount could obtain pollution allowances from the state or buy them from other emitters with excess allowances…. Read the rest here
Geothermal

Geothermal Can Take Us All To A Better Tomorrow

Regarding Peak Oil, the question is: “What do we do now?”

What makes the most sense is to develop energy resources that need no subsidies.

And geothermal is proven technology that needs no subsidies.

Which energy resource will support the most defenseless among us? Geothermal. It is the least costly and it can get energy to all of us, especially the folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

Higher electric rates encourages the “shiny shoe” folks to leave the grid. This leaves the “rubbah slippah” folks paying more, in order to support the grid. This is not good.

Geothermal can take all of us together to a better tomorrow, and this will cause the aloha spirit to thrive. It is the aloha spirit that will help us through an uncertain future.

Gail Tverberg wrote this. Have a look:

Peak Oil: What do we do now?

Our problem now is that we have built a complex economy that depends on oil and other fuels. We can see that we will have less oil in the future. The question is, “What we should do, in planning for a change in the world?”

Our natural reaction is to try to build add-ons to our current system that we hope might make the system work longer. I am afraid these will be mostly ill-advised, because the system is more complex than we understand, and well-meant changes may have adverse impacts.

What we really need is a new system that will work for the long-term. But such a system is so far away from us now, it is hard to even think about how it would work, and how we would get from our current system to the new system. Read more

Government, Schools

Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act Also Helps Farmers

The Packer recently wrote about the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act:

Child nutrition bill is a ‘historic win’

Published on 12/02/2010 06:41PM

Legislation that seeks to transform school meals in large part by adding more fruits and vegetables has passed Congress.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act reauthorizes federal child nutrition programs. The Senate passed the bill in August and the House approved it Dec. 2 by a margin 264 to 157.

The bill was sent to President Obama for his signature, the first major legislation to clear the lame duck session of Congress.

The act increases federal reimbursement for school lunches by six cents per meal, the first increase in more than 30 years. The addition is tied to increased servings of food consistent with dietary guidelines, including fruits and vegetables. Read more

In addition to being good for our nation’s school kids, this Act will help Hawai‘i’s farmers sell produce to Hawai‘i’s school system.

This is something concrete that will help farmers make money. And, as we know: If the farmers make money, farmers will farm.

Government

Richard Applying for Senate Seat

4 Comments

There’s some news around here.

With our new governor Neil Abercrombie having just tapped Senator Russell Kokubun for his new cabinet, that state senate seat is available – and Richard is putting his name in for it.

“It’s an appointed position, so I won’t have to shake hands and kiss babies,” says Richard.

Joking aside, though, he is serious about it. We had a conversation about it, and I share it here:

Leslie: How does this work? What is the process?

Richard: The Democratic party will send up three names from Senator Kokubun’s district for the governor’s consideration. If I’m lucky, I make one of those three. The governor makes the appointment.

There will be a bunch of folks applying, so we’ll just see how it turns out. I’ve thought about it and I’ve talked to June and the rest of the family, and for all of us this feels like something we can do.

Leslie: It’s interesting that you say something “we” can do.

Richard: You know, we work as a family, and as a team. Everyone needs to feel comfortable, like they could do their part at the farm if I’m not there as often. Do I need to be there? Do they feel okay about it? We have to do this as a family. Everybody stepped up and said, “We can do it, we can handle.” I’m really grateful to June and the rest of the family.

Leslie: What sort of feedback are you getting?

Richard: It’s kind of surprising how much support I’ve received, from so many people. It’s overwhelming, actually. It’s humbling.

Leslie: How did you decide to do this?

Richard: Really, it’s my workers. They want more for their family, and their kids. More than being a banana farmer, and I can understand that. I empathize with that. Everybody wants better for their family.

You know, the world is changing because of this oil thing. It’s so clear to me. It’s much more serious than most of us know. So this is a real important time. If it wasn’t this particular time in history, I wouldn’t do it. It’s not about being a politician.

It’s so very important we cope in the best possible way. And I can tell you about this as it applies to Hawaiian culture. A lot of the dissatisfaction in modern Hawaiian history has to do with the culture giving giving giving and the economy taking taking taking. At some point, people start to say, Enough is enough.

We’re at the point in history that if we make the right decision – in terms of getting away from oil and using our geothermal resource – the economy can give give give and the culture can receive receive receive.

We really don’t have much time to accomplish what we need to accomplish. That’s what is driving me to go and shape policy.

We can guide policy to take us to a place where we can achieve these goals. It is pretty clear what we’ve got to do. Not that it’s easy, but we have to do it. And what is really exciting is that there’s a possibility of accomplishing this for our future generations.

I’m not stressed about not knowing everything. I’m a quick learner. There’s no doubt in my mind that I can learn all the stuff I need to learn, fast. I’m supremely confident. I guess it has to do with, Am I willing to do it? I am.

Leslie: What else are you thinking about?

Richard: One of the most important things about being a senator is being on O‘ahu and being able to educate people on the stuff I know about it. It can influence policy, if people know the issues. I know farming, and I know energy.

It would be kind of novel to have an actual farmer there, I believe. If I think about the whole Senate and House, I don’t know of a true farmer there. I would be a real farmer talking about food security. I think that’s kind of important.

If we plan to plant stuff, to make liquid energy, well, I know the farming end of it. There aren’t very many times that the farmer has an opportunity to say what the considerations are from the farming side. For example, what is the consequence of planting thousands of acres to make biofuels? How much water, what kind of land, what about rain and muddiness and steep slopes? – the really practical things that farmers know about.

Leslie: So, farming, energy….

Richard: It’s clear to me what my focus would be. I would love to be on a committee that has to do with ag, water, Hawaiian affairs or energy. Other things I can learn, but those things I know about. I definitely know about those.

One ability I have is to break down complex subjects into their simple components. That’s what I do naturally. That’s what I like to do, and it’s what I do.

And beyond that, this is not rocket science we’re talking about. We’re talking about things that happen to people. The final effect of everything you do is asking yourself what is going to happen to real people. Are we getting so complex that we get lost in the doing and we forget what actually happens on the ground? For me, it’s not very complex.