On Friday, I attended the Kona/Kohala Chamber of Commerce’s Hawai‘i Island Economic Summit.

One of the questions during an energy session I attended was whether Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi’s vision of “100 percent renewable energy by 2015” is reasonable.

I replied with some facts:

• Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) estimates that it has 200MW of geothermal power at its present site.
• At peak use, the Big Island uses less than 200MW.
• Right now, PGV is authorized to produce 60MW.
• Last time it took them just six months to get authorization from the Planning Commission.
• That would leave three and a half months for building the needed production units.

This is doable. What we need is the will to do it.

A description of the Economic Summit:

This Summit will consist of a morning panel “conversation” comprised of five to six guest thinkers and leaders who will discuss their work, ideas that inspire them and what they see as the future for Hawai‘i Island.  Confirmed speakers include Dr. Earl Bakken, engineer, businessman, philanthropist, inventor of the pacemaker; William P. Kenoi, Mayor of Hawai‘i County; Sanjeev Bhagowalia, Director of the newly created State Office of Information Management and Technology, Robert Pacheco, President and Naturalist Guide, Hawaii Forest & Trail and Michele Saito, President of Farmers Insurance Hawaii. Moderator for this panel will be Steven Petranik, editor of Hawaii Business magazine.

Our luncheon keynote speaker is Eric Saperston, acclaimed film director and producer, successful author and award-winning speaker and storyteller. Eric is Chief Creative Officer for the ‘inspire-tainment’ company, Live in Wonder, a forward thinking experiential company on the cutting edge of communication to ignite, inspire and enliven the world.

Eric’s story:

Dr. Earl Bakken talked about his manifesto (read about June and I visiting him at his request to discuss geothermal), which includes inspiring kids to use a live cam during the building of the Thirty Meter Telescope, the development of geothermal and Ku‘oko‘a, as well as building a world-class hospital in Waimea.

West Hawaii Today wrote about the summit.