Tag Archives: Oahu

Education, Geothermal, Lowering Electric Rates, Schools

How To Dramatically Increase Big Island School Budgets

Richard Ha writes:

Because the Big Island pays 25 percent more for its electricity than O‘ahu does, it follows that Big Island schools have 25 percent less of their budgets available to pay teachers than O‘ahu’s schools. Did you ever think about it this way?

Some Big Island school complexes (an area’s elementary, middle and high school) are paying around $1 million/year just for electricity. As compared with O‘ahu, that’s around $250,000/year that isn’t going toward teachers and other education services. At $70K per teacher, that could be three full time-teachers, for instance.

On top of the Big Island having paid 25 percent more for its electricity than O‘ahu for as long as anyone can remember, our Puna district has one of the lowest median family incomes in the state.

And what’s the best predictor of family income? Level of education. Therefore, one of many benefits of cheaper electricity is that a lot more of our schools’ money would go toward educating our children. Lowering the cost of electricity would allow Puna schools more resources to focus on teachers and learning, and it follows that this could lead to increased median family incomes.

Geothermal done in a responsible manner can lower the cost of electricity. But we all must work together. It’s great that HELCO is moving forward with low-cost alternatives, such as calling for requests for proposals for expanding geothermal production.

There are a thousand reasons why NO CAN. We only need to find the one reason why CAN!

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 Should Oahu Do When Big Isle Electricity Rates Drop?

As the Big Island deploys more geothermal, its electricity rates will come down relative to O‘ahu’s.

It won’t be too long before the Big Island’s electricity rates are lower than O‘ahu’s.

See HECO rates per island here.

Should O‘ahu try to levelize rates, in order to take advantage of some of this decrease in electricity cost? Or should it wait for a cable, which would lower electric costs more?

For various reasons, it is better to wait for a cable.

To be continued

Geothermal

Undersea Cable Carrying Geothermal Power Feasible

Did you know that running an undersea cable to carry geothermal power from the Big Island to O‘ahu has already been tested and proven feasible?

Starting on page 15, this 2002 article from the Geo-Heat Center shows that back in the 1980s, the Geothermal/Interisland Transmission Project spent $26 million “studying, designing, engineering, fabricating and testing” a Hawai‘i Deep Water Cable for a 30-year life span. They laid it down and picked it up three times.

The technology worked, and at the time it was only a matter of cost. Oil was very cheap then. Now, it is expensive and climbing.

HAWAII AND GEOTHERMAL WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING?

Compiled by Tonya L. Boyd Geo-Heat Center

Donald Thomas, SOEST, University of Hawaii, Hawaii Andrea T. Gill, DBEDT Energy, Resources and Technology Division, Hawaii

From 1982 through early 1990, an engineering feasibility project was undertaken to evaluate the technical and economic challenges of installing a large-scale 500-megawatt geothermal/interisland submarine cable. About $26 million (Federal and State funding) was expended in studies, design, engineering, fabrication, and testing for the Hawaii Deep Water Cable Project. Figure 8 shows the proposed route for the Hawaii Deep Water Cable. The design criteria stated that the cable(s) would have to be able to withstand the stresses of at-sea deployment (including strong currents, large waves, and strong winds), the undersea environment (including corrosion and abrasion), and be able to reliably conduct electricity for thirty years. Since the Alenuihaha Channel is nearly 2,000 meters deep, both deployment (laying of the cables) and operating environment posed unique engineering challenges. The rationale for the project was that the primary source of geothermal energy was on the island of Hawaii, and the major electrical load was on the island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located. The scheme under consideration was to use the geothermal energy to generate power and transmit it to Oahu. At the time it was estimated that up to 500 MW could be used on Oahu, whereas only about 100 MW were needed on the Big Island….

Two large-scale tests were conducted to examine the technical feasibility of the Hawaii Deep Water Cable. The first was the laboratory test where the cable was subjected to the electrical and mechanical loads expected during the 30 years of service. Second, the at-sea tests examined the ability of the projected, integrated control system to place the cable at the bottom accurately and to control the residual tension…. Read the rest

Geothermal

The World Has Changed: Big Island Supports Geothermal

I’ve attended at least 10 organized group geothermal meetings on the Big Island within the last two years, and I have talked to numerous individuals.

It is my sense that an overwhelming majority of Hawaiians on the Big Island support geothermal.

It is also my sense that folks on O‘ahu have no idea that opinions have changed from 20 years ago.

I was directly involved with the Thirty Meter Telescope process. Many more people support geothermal than supported the Thirty Meter Telescope. And Robert Lindsey, Big Island OHA trustee, testified at an OHA hearing that it is his sense that the overwhelmingly majority of Hawaiians support the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The rubbah slippah folks here on the Big Island are well aware of the connection of oil prices to high electricity costs. And they are well aware that the folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder will get their lights turned off first – and too often they will be Hawaiians.

Everyone knows that geothermal is proven technology, cheap, gives off no emissions and occupies the smallest footprint. Those who don’t know it probably don’t live on the Big Island.

Geothermal, assuming it is developed in a pono way, is a right of the native people to have a better life for themselves and for future generations

Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil

What About ‘A Long Time’ Do We Not Understand?

Just because O‘ahu does not have a base power solution to
electricity, and needs to grow biofuel to generate electricity, that does not mean the Big Island – which has a vast geothermal resource – needs to grow expensive biofuels just to copy O‘ahu.

We need to treat each island as a bundle of resources, and solve each island’s problems according to the resources it has. We cannot afford a one-size-fits-all plan.

Farmers make these kinds of decisions all the time. You work
with the ground under your feet, not the ground that exists the next valley over.

The Age of Oil is now 150 years old and we are already talking about decline. But the “hot spot” under the Big Island will last 500,000 to 1 million years.

What is it about “a long time” that we don’t understand?

This video is by Jeff Rubin, former chief economist at CIBC World Markets, the investment banking arm of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

In it, he gives a clear description of today’s oil situation and discusses why oil prices will be rising – and sooner than people think.

It’s because we simply are not finding as many new oil fields as we are using.  More and more, the evidence is growing and we need to come to grips with reality.

It does not have to be disastrous. But we do have to be smart and think like survivors.

Where do we want our future generations to be 150 years from now?

Big Island, Biofuel, Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

‘Aloha, Aloha, Call When You Find Land!’

I stayed at the Ala Moana Hotel last week while attending the Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit, which had 1400 participants and was huge and exciting.

One evening, as I sat on the lanai of my hotel room looking toward Waikiki and all the lit-up hotel rooms and bright lights and the headlights and tail lights of cars, it came to me: Everything visible was dependent on oil.

The only thing I could see that was good was that the Macy’s sign is cheaper to power than the Liberty House sign it replaced. Shorter sign.

Sitting out there on the lanai, it became clear to me that if we follow HECO’s plan for using biofuels to generate electricity for the Big Island, we will soon have limited food resources and will be making plans to send people out to discover new lands.

Back in 2007, I spoke at the Hawaii Island Food Summit:

I told them I had a nightmare that there would be a big meeting down by the pier one day, where they announce that food supplies were short because the oil supply was short and so we
would have to send thousands of people out to discover new land.

I was afraid that they would send all the people with white hair out on the boats to find new land—all the Grandmas and Grandpas and me, though maybe not June.

Grandmas and Grandpas hobbled onto the boats with their canes and their wheelchairs, clutching all their medicines, and everybody gave all of us flower leis, and everyone was saying,
“Aloha, Aloha, call us when you find land! Aloha!”

If, instead, we on the Big Island follow our own plan of maximizing
our geothermal resource, and start to add others such as wind, solar and ocean resources as they scale up; and if we emphasize lots of small- to medium-sized diversified farms, we will not need to send out the canoes to look for new land.

The Big Island could help solve O‘ahu’s food and fuel issues, too, so it wouldn’t be necessary for them to send their white-haired folks off, either.

The Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit was exciting and I’ve spent all week trying to put all the goings-on into perspective. O‘ahu has a real serious electricity problem. It has no proven-technology base power alternative to fossil fuels. And it has limited opportunity to integrate solar and wind.

I can absolutely see why HECO was anxious to institute Smart Grid. It was an attempt to wring every bit of efficiency out of intermittent sources of power.

I can also see why HECO made the decision that biofuels would have to be a solution for O‘ahu. The biorefinery is located on O‘ahu. I can even understand why they changed their minds and decided to bring on more PV solar. THEY do need everything!

What I just cannot understand is why HECO tried to force the Big Island to go that route.

We on the Big Island need a different strategy – one that focuses on the Big Island’s resources and environment.