Tag Archives: Big Island

Biofuel, Renewable Energy Sources

NO to AKP and a 4.2% Rate Hike

Richard Ha writes:

We have until Friday (November 30, 2012) to voice opposition to the Aina Koa Pono biofuel project and the 4.2 percent rate hike.

You can make a difference by submitting testimony to hawaii.puc@hawaii.gov before this Friday.

Wally Andrade is taking charge of his destiny:

Subject: CC: PUC Docket #2012-0185; Application for approval of biofuel supply contract with Aina Koa Pono

Chair Morita and commissioners:

I am very much against the approval of the Aina Koa Pono project and the current biofuel agreement with HELCO. Please do not tie us to a 20 year contact @ $200/barrel. The AKP microwave technology is not proven on this scale, they have not tested their feedstock, their projections are not rational. What’s the true EROI?

We are depending on you to drive the utility to focus on ways to lower the rates and stop acting as a regulated monopoly with loyalties to their shareholders and not the customers.

We have an abundant low cost geothermal resource on this island that would serve to lower the rates, spur economic growth and provide security for the people. Drive Helco to this resource. 

Sincerely,

Walter Andrade
Hamakua Coast

Food Security

Industrial Production Returning to U.S.; Will Stabilize Food Prices

Richard Ha writes:

The natural gas boom is starting to bring industrial production back to the U.S. This is going to stabilize food prices.

Products made from cheap natural gas, such as nitrogen fertilizer, plastics and other agricultural inputs, will stabilize. Then, as we start to close down oil-fired plants on the Big Island and replace the present liquid fuel with lower cost alternatives, local farmers' refrigeration chain costs and local food manufacturing costs will start to become more competitive with food imported from the mainland.

Consumers will have more discretionary income to support local farmers. As we all know, food security involves farmers farming, and if farmers make money, the farmers will farm.

From The Washington Post:

The new boom: Shale gas fueling an American industrial revival

Orascom chose Wever, Iowa, over Illinois because part of its investment will be funded by a tax-exempt bond. The Iowa Economic Development Authority approved an incentive package that is expected to provide tax relief “in the order of $100 million,” the company said.

Royal Dutch Shell has unveiled plans for a $2 billion petrochemical plant northwest of Pittsburgh, where it can use natural gas supplies from the state’s enormous Marcellus shale formation. It chose Pennsylvania despite being wooed by Ohio and West Virginia.

The broader effect

The economic growth from natural gas abundance extends to companies providing supplies to the drilling boom.

On Oct. 1, Honeywell announced that it paid $525 million for a 70 percent stake in Thomas Russell, a privately held provider of technology and equipment for natural gas processing and treatment. With the acquisition, Honeywell will offer technologies and products that allow producers of shale and conventional natural gas to remove contaminants from natural gas and recover high-value natural gas liquids used for petrochemicals and fuel….

Read the rest

Biofuel, Community, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Hilo PUC Meeting Tonight; Read West Hawaii Today Editorial on Aina Koa Pono

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Richard Ha writes:

Tonight is the Hilo PUC meeting and we encourage you to show up and wear your rubbah slippahs. The Rubbah Slippah Revolution is at 6 p.m. in the Hilo High School cafeteria.

The PUC will be hearing HELCO’s proposal for a 4.2 percent rate hike, as well as Aina Koa Pono’s proposed biofuel project.

http://hahaha.hamakuasprings.com/renewable_energy_sources/Mahalo to West Hawaii Today editor Reed Flickinger for a very insightful, timely and important editorial on the subject of Aina Koa Pono.

HELCO PUC hearing meaningless without more fiscal disclosure

By REED FLICKINGER

West Hawaii Today

There is a fundamental problem with the Public Utilities Commission meetings scheduled on this island next week to discuss an application establishing a biofuel surcharge in HELCO’s energy cost for customers: How can the public comment upon unknown information?

HELCO and sister company HECO are seeking approval to enter into a 20-year contract to purchase biodiesel fuel from Aina Koa Pono, a company that has yet to build its proposed plant in Ka‘u, and pass on to us, the ratepayers, any costs that incurred if the biodiesel costs more than fossil fuel on the open market — over the 20-year term of the contract….

Read the rest

He’s exactly right – we have had a hard time articulating about this issue because of a lack of information.

But we figured out that the oil price Aina Koa Pono (AKP) is using is around $200/barrel. And if they were to predict a high oil price in 2015, then the amount the rate payer would pay could be predicted to be very low – like $1 per month. If the cost of oil were actually much lower than $200 per barrel, we would pay a lot more.

But getting back to the real issue: There is a lot at stake here. If AKP cannot demonstrate positive energy production – and they have not done any tests on the feedstock they will use – their product will always cost more than oil and they will run out of money. This also means that they use more oil than they make. But if AKP is successful at producing biodiesel for $200/barrel and the oil price stays below $200 for a long time, the Big Island’s path to economic survival/prosperity will have been blocked.

If oil rises to more than $200/barrel, the tourist industry and other businesses will be very hard hit. In that case, the Big Island will need the lowest cost solution that it can find. And $200/barrel cost is not it.

The rest of HECO’s plan would work, though.

Hu Honua, w/22MW of biomass-low $100/barrel oil equivalence, plus the 50MW of per-barrel oil equivalence geothermal, is lower cost. And if we can renegotiate the old 25MW geothermal avoided cost contract, that sets us on the right path.

The result would be 88 MW of stable and affordable geothermal, plus 22MW of stable affordable biomass. This would ensure that the Big Island’s electricity rates would be lowest in the state. And that is what we want.

Then if we could safely replace the 80 MW of liquid-fired generation at Keahole with geothermal, or ocean thermal or liquid natural gas – whatever makes economic sense – we could actually be looking toward prosperity for future generations.

The bottom line is that AKP is not in the interest of Big Islanders. And this is the defining battle. Everything else is inconsequential.

Please show your face at tonight’s PUC meeting, East Hawai‘i. Let’s make sure the PUC knows this is not okay with us.

Community, Lowering Electric Rates

My Audio at Kona Blog Radio

Richard Ha writes:

My friend Dave Ross invited me to be a guest speaker on Kona Blog Radio. The program was recorded at Boston Basil’s in Kailua-Kona on Tuesday, and you can listen to it here:

Listen to internet radio with KBP on Blog Talk Radio

I talked about the Big Island Community Coalition (BICC), the organization recently formed to make the island’s electricity rates the lowest in the state.

The next step: Asking people to attend upcoming PUC hearings.

The PUC is holding these hearings to learn what people think about HELCO’s proposed 4.2 percent rate hike, as well as the proposed Aina Koa Pono biofuels project at Ka‘u. BICC is against both proposals because they would raise our electricity rates, not lower them.

The first PUC hearing is on Monday, October 29, 2012, 6 p.m. at the Hilo High School cafeteria. The next is on Tuesday, October 30 at 6 p.m. at Kealakehe High School.

We need your input so we can work on getting our electricity rates down, instead of just watching them go up.

Lowering Electric Rates

Pohoiki: Taking Our Community Coalition Into The Community

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Richard Ha writes: 

Ramp

Pohoiki Boat Ramp
There was a Ho‘olaule‘a yesterday, sponsored by the Kealoha Trust, at Pohoiki Beach Park.

Richard Ha, Kuulei Kealoha Cooper, Faye Hanohano, Noelani Kalipi

Richard Ha; Ku’ulei Kealoha Cooper, administrator of the Kealoha Trust which sponsored the Ho‘olaule‘a; Representative Faye Hanohano; Noelani Kalipi,  her husband Gaylen, and their two

small children, as well as Kapono Pa and me, manned a booth for the Big Island Community Coalition (BICC) and signed up new members.

Noe Kalipi, Richard Ha, Kapono Pa

Noe Kalipi is involved with BICC for the sake of her children.
Screen shot 2012-09-03 at 9.29.05 AM
Signing up Leah Gouker.

The BICC’s mission is to lower electricity rates on the Big
Island so that they are the lowest in the state.

Sign

I got involved with the BICC for the same reason I got involved in Ku‘oko‘a: We need to align the needs of the people with the needs
of the utility. The world is changing and we must adapt.

Sign1

This is the same reason I got involved with the Thirty Meter Telescope; it helps our community transition. And it’s also why I now support the Hawaii Island Beacon Community, which is involved in making the health care system more efficient, and therefore more affordable.

Did you see the front page headline in yesterday’s Hawaii Tribune-Herald?

Poor Hit Hardest by Rate Hikes

Should a proposed electricity rate increase of 4.2 percent in 2013 be approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission, Big Island low-income families will be among those hardest hit by higher power bills. 

Last year, almost a third of all Hawaii families that sought federal assistance with paying their electricity bills were located on Hawaii Island. 

“For many of our families, the money covers one or two bill payments, and that’s it. Then they’re in trouble,” said [Kayla Rosenfeld, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services]….. “I get concerned every time I see that HELCO is getting a rate increase because it has a tremendous impact on these families. Their bills are already high now…. And for the elderly, some have to make a choice each month, between buying food or paying for medicine or paying their electric bill.”  Read the rest

The bottom line re: all my involvement is that agriculture
is a hard business. I am unable to raise my workers’ pay, and they are coming under increasing pressure from the economy.

Everything I do starts with the objective of helping my farm workers. And helping our workers helps everyone in the community, as well.

Community, Geothermal

Join the Big Island Community Coalition for Lowest Electricity Rates

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Richard Ha writes:

The Big Island Community Coalition is determined to make Big Island electricity rates the lowest in the state.

Big Island Community Coalition

After all, we have the best combination of renewable resources here on the Big Island. It will proactively weigh in wherever electricity rates are involved.

The fundamental problem with the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative is that it does not require that the electric utility choose lower cost solutions. It does not take into consideration the rubbah slippah folks.

Two-thirds of our economy is made up of consumer spending. If in place of expensive electricity we had affordable electricity, businesses would grow, farmers would farm and we would not be sending our children to the mainland to look for jobs.

Visit the Big Island Community Coalition website to join the mailing list and support the Big Island Community Coalition’s Priority #1: “Make Big Island electricity rates the lowest in the state by emphasizing the use of local resources.”

Biofuel

Why Aina Koa Pono Biofuels Isn’t In Our Best Interest

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

The Aina Koa Pono (AKP) biofuels experiment will saddle us with expensive electricity costs when there are other, better, alternatives.

  1. It costs way too much. Generating electricity from oil today costs 21 cents/kWh. AKP will charge us the 21 cents/kWh plus a surcharge until oil reaches some target price in the future. In comparison, geothermal costs approximately 10 cents/kWh, according to a 2005 GeothermEx report.
  2. It uses more energy than it generates. An independent third party should do an analysis of the whole Aina Koa Pono process, especially its Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI). The process uses fossil fuel energy to grow its crops, then uses electricity made from fossil fuel to run its microwaves to get pyrolysis oil. That oil (which is more like vinegar) is then sent through a refinery to make it into a fuel, which will be trucked to Keahole, where it will be burned to make electricity. If the objective were to make electricity with biomass, it would be cheaper to burn the biomass, make steam, turn a turbine and make electricity that way.
  3. It is speculative. Did you know there is no industrial-scale project in the world using this process to produce electricity? We are trying to be first in the world. Very frequently, a better strategy is to copy the first in the world. It greatly reduces the risk of failure.
  4. It will tie us to a 20-year contact, during which rate payers will have a difficult time investing in other alternatives. We need to invest in the smart grid, so we can bring more solar and wind on board.
  5. Rate payers (that’s you) should not be made to be venture capitalists.
Geothermal

Our Expensive Big Island Electric Bills

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Richard Ha writes:

Geothermal energy costs half what oil does to generate electricity – yet our electric bills on the Big Island are 25 percent higher than they are on O‘ahu.

This is unacceptable.

The Big Island’s rate is close to 43 cents kWh, while on O‘ahu it is close to 33 cents per kWh.

At a minimum, our electric bills should be equal to those on O‘ahu.

There are a thousand reasons why NO CAN. We are looking for the one reason why CAN!

Geothermal

What Would It Be Like if We Switched to Geothermal?

Richard Ha writes:

What will happen to Big Island agriculture if we start replacing oil-fired electricity generators with geothermal electricity?

Food security involves farmers farming. If the farmers make money, the farmers will farm.

If we start using geothermal electricity, the "cold chain," the temperature control aspect of food production, will cost less. This starts with cooling at the farm and includes cooling at the wholesaler/distributor, cooling at the retail stores and cooling at the home.

Local produce will start to be closer in price to imported produce. Consumers will have more money in their pockets, so they will be able to support local agriculture.

Electricity on the Big Island has always been 25 percent more expensive than on O‘ahu. What if our electricity cost were lower, due to geothermal?

Value-added products manufactured on the Big Island would become competitive in the O‘ahu market. Having more income streams is beneficial to farmers. 

Cheap, stable geothermal electricity will help local farmers make money. And, as we know, if the farmer makes money, the farmer will farm.

Geothermal

Re: Geothermal: Magnetotelluric Surveys Coming Soon

Dr. Don Thomas says he may be able to start magnetotelluric surveys as soon as June. It is very important to do these surveys, as they will result in the best information about our geothermal resources here on the Big Island and eventually in the whole state.

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 the U.S.A. and countries located on the Pacific Ring of Fire such as Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Ecuador, and Peru…

In the Philippines, we visited a geothermal plant obtaining steam from a volcano that last erupted 100,000 years ago. Could this mean that we might find hot rocks in unexpected places, like Mauna Kea, which last erupted 4,500 years ago?

Dr. Thomas estimates that he may be able to survey the whole state in a little over two years.