Tag Archives: Undersea Cable

Biofuel, Food Security, Geothermal, Lowering Electric Rates, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Energy & the Future of the Big Island

Richard Ha writes:

This past Friday I participated on an energy panel at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel called “Energy: Facing the Reality of Renewables.” Panel members were Jay Ignacio, President of Hawaii Electric Light company; Mike Kaleikini, who is General
Manager of Puna Geothermal Venture; and myself, as steering committee member of the Big Island Community Coalition.

From the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce: “The 2013 Summit will further explore those initiatives via ‘panels of conversation’ on each topic. Three guests per topic have been invited to participate on panels to discuss their work with the Summit audience, ideas that inspire them and what they see as the future for Hawaii Island. Each panel will have 45 minutes of discussion followed by questions from the audience. We are pleased to have Steve Petranik, Editor of ‘Hawaii Business Magazine’ as our moderator again this year.”

There were five panels: Education, Sustainability, Employment, Energy and Health Care.

West Hawaii Today wrote about it in an article called Prospects of an All-Geothermal Isle Unlikely.

I started out by saying mixed messages are being sent out. Some say that the U.S. has enough oil and gas that we will soon replace Saudi Arabia as a world energy supplier. Using data and scientific methods, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA (ASPO) has come to different conclusions. Its agenda is merely to spread the best information it has on this topic. You can learn more by viewing video at the ASPO-USA.org website.

I described the Big Island Community Coalition’s mission, which is to achieve, for the Big Island, the lowest-cost electricity in the state. Striving for a low cost solution hedges our bets. It is better to be safe than sorry. I told them that those interested in supporting this group can get on the Big Island Community Coalition mailing list.

I related how food and energy are inextricably tied together. Food security has to do with farmers farming. And if farmers make money, the farmers will farm! But while only two percent of the mainland’s electricity comes from oil, more than 70 percent of the electricity in Hawai‘i does. The mainland, of course, is our main supplier of food and our biggest competitor. As oil prices rise, Hawai‘i becomes less and less competitive.

As oil prices rise, and electricity prices rise, and farmers and other businesses become less competitive, local families have less spending money.

The answer is to find the lowest electricity cost solution. For if people have extra money, they will spend it. Two-thirds of our economy is made up of consumer spending.

Provided that the expensive and ill-advised Aina Koa Pono biofuel project does not go forward, we have a bright future ahead of us. In the pipeline is Hu Honua’s 22MW biomass burning project, and
next is 50W of additional geothermal. Add to that 38MW of present geothermal, and, assuming the old geothermal contract is renegotiated, that would amount to 110MW of stable affordable electricity. This would be more than 60 percent of the peak power use on the Big Island. Even if we do not count wind and solar renewables, this would put the Big Island on a trajectory of achieving the lowest cost electricity in the state.

What would happen if our electricity costs were lower than O‘ahu’s? We can’t even imagine it.

  • It would change our economy.
  • It would help our County government preserve services.
  • Fewer of our kids would have to go to the mainland to find jobs.
  • More of our money could be used for education, instead of paying for oil.
  • More people would have money to support local farmers.
  • Single moms would have less pressure than they do now.
  • Folks on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder would not be pushed over the edge.
  • There are lots and lots  of younger folks who want to farm. Maybe they could actually make money so they could farm.

I told the audience that we on the panel were all friends. But there is too much at stake for the BICC to give ground on our goal to make the Big Island’s electricity the cheapest in the state.

During the Q & A, someone asked what we each thought about an undersea cable to connect all the islands. I replied that our primary objective is to bring low cost electricity to the Big Island before we do anything else.

The audience liked that a lot and spontaneously applauded.

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

Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Are Undersea Cables to Transmit Electricity Feasible?

1 Comment

As I continue to look at ways to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels for our electricity generation so we will be free from the volatility of oil prices – particularly in this time where we know most of the “cheap oil” has already been found and processed, and global demand for oil exceeds its supply – I keep bumping up against the idea of undersea cables.

People are always questioning whether undersea cables are technologically feasible, and I thought you’d be interested to know that there at least 14 such undersea cables in operation today, transmitting electricity.

Some were built as far back as 1965, such as the Cook Strait submarine cables in New Zealand, which transmit electricity between the North and South Islands.

There is a very interesting history of the debate that went on in New Zealand before the cables were installed. What struck me is that the debate was in the 1950s and 1960s.

Some very modern cables have just been commissioned, such as the BritNed cable that connects the United Kingdom to the Netherlands and can transmit up to 1000MW. A short video on the BritNed web site details the making and laying of this cable.

Cables are currently being manufactured to be laid at depths up to 2000 meters, which is deeper than our Alenuihaha Channel (1900 meters) between the Big Island and Maui.

People used to believe that undersea cables couldn’t work in Hawai‘i because our channels are too deep. Undersea cables are clearly not the whole answer to Hawai‘i getting off of fossil fuels, but perhaps they can be part of a broad solution.

I am glad to know that the technology exists today, should we, the people of Hawai‘i, decide we want to share the robust renewable resources we have on each of our islands to create a reliable, stable, statewide electric grid that is not dependent on fossil fuels for its electricity generation.

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