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Are there technical and logistical (as opposed to political and special-interest) reasons why electricity is so expensive in Hawaii? It seems like it would be an ideal place for wind-, wave-, and solar-generated electricity, if the will existed to implement it. Are the up-front costs too high?
There are really a couple of factors - generating electricity at the power plant level and generating electricity at home.
From a power plant perspective - by far the vast majority of electricity is generated from oil - so when the price of oil goes up - so does the electric bill.
"Imported oil is used to supply about 90 percent of Hawai‘i's energy needs."
From a solar perspective - many homes do have solar whether that be solar water or solar electric. As far as solar electric is concerned - 1) You generally need to be a homeowner and 2) you have to be able to afford it - the cost of entry can be expensive even with tax breaks. 3) Many people rent in multi-unit housing which isn't conducive to solar.
For wind - there are more wind farms coming online - but they are very controversial here - as they don't look very appealing in the Hawaiian landscape. Also, they do impact birds.
It seems like it would be an ideal place for wind-, wave-, and solar-generated electricity, if the will existed to implement it.
It seems that way to a lot of people, which is why quite a number of alternative energy experiments are being conducted in Hawai'i. But so far only solar and wind power technology has advanced enough to be practical in more than trial installations, and each has limitations as mentioned before.
One of the longest operating of these experiments is the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA), located north of Kona Airport near Keahole point on the Big Island. It is experimenting with Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), which uses the temperature differential between warm surface water and very cold deep ocean water to generate electricity.
There's a geothermal generator in Puna, on the Big Island, also a NELHA project, which is tapping volcanic heat energy to generate electricity, but criticism is mounting in the community around because of sulfur dioxide being vented into the air, and a rising suspicion that it is triggering unusual seismic activity.
On the Homokua Coast an old coal fired generator has been rehabbed and restarted, and now is burning Eucalyptus logs harvested from former sugar cane fields. This uses old technology in a new way, with a local renewable energy source.
Several biomass conversion projects are running, at least in pilot-level installations. City of Honolulu signed a 20 year contract a year or so ago to buy electricity generated with methane gas collected from garbage decomposition. A biomass project in Puna is wending its way through regulatory approval now, which would turn agricultural waste and garbage into flammable gas by microwaving it in a big chamber lined with small microwave generators. Kills two birds with one stone, yeah? Whether that will achieve liftoff is uncertain as of yet.
And there have been a number of experiments to try to harvest tide energy , but I'm unaware of any of them being very practical as of yet.
So, to date, individual solar energy installations are the most widely implemented alternative technology, but the wholesale replacement of expensive oil based energy, especially for transportation purposes, still seems a distant possibility.
Interesting - thanks, guys. There certainly are a lot of different experiments underway. That's one thing we're spoiled by here in the PNW: cheap hydroelectric power. Has nobody thought of building a huge dam on the Wailua River? :-)
Actually makes sense that electronics would be the same or cheaper -- closer to Japan/China.
But seems Asian cars would also be cheaper.
Well, these days, most "Asian" car models sold in the US are manufactured in North America, meaning, the mainland, imported from exotic locales such as Marysville, OH (Honda), Georgetown, KY (Toyota), or Smyrna, TN (Nissan).
95% of the time moving to Hawaii is a BAD financial decision.
Apologies ahead of time as this might already be off topic and if so, very sorry for the hijack.
People often overlook all the moving costs to get out here. Just check other forum posts on all the costs involved for moving out here. (I will definitely miss a few here):
Shipping one or more automobiles
Pet shipping/airfare, quarantine, shots
Shipping of belongings - crate(s) or boxes
Airfare + additional check in luggage
Car rental while looking for a place + gas costs
Taxi cost to be dropped off at Sand Island to pick up personal automobile(s) + gas since automobile is going to be less than 1/4 tank
Hotel/vrbo stay while looking for a place + possibly add in nightly valet/parking and internet charges
Rent + deposit + application fee once a place is found
Food and water while looking for a place
Just these alone will cost close to $10k for a single person unless they truly live like a vagabond and also don't have a car to ship.
These are all what I would call up front costs (due prior or after arriving), there will be many more costs to add to this list 30 days down the road but those are for another forum thread.
Several biomass conversion projects are running, at least in pilot-level installations. City of Honolulu signed a 20 year contract a year or so ago to buy electricity generated with methane gas collected from garbage decomposition. A biomass project in Puna is wending its way through regulatory approval now, which would turn agricultural waste and garbage into flammable gas by microwaving it in a big chamber lined with small microwave generators. Kills two birds with one stone, yeah? Whether that will achieve liftoff is uncertain as of yet.
That was a very informative reply, thanks for typing it up! I'm curious, since you're knowledgable on the subject of "alternative" energy projects underway in the islands, do you know if anyone is making/selling sustainable biodiesel anywhere on Oahu? I drive a car that burns B100 just fine (it doesn't even need a blend, especially in warm weather) but I tend not to buy it unless I know where it's coming from. For one thing, some biodiesel isn't refined enough that you'd want to use it at 100%, but more importantly, a lot of biodiesel production is actually not done in a very sustainable or sensible fashion. Some is though, and I like to support those folks when I can.
I'm curious, since you're knowledgable on the subject of "alternative" energy projects underway in the islands, do you know if anyone is making/selling sustainable biodiesel anywhere on Oahu?
On the Big Island, until the end of last year, the biofuel being sold all came from Oahu or Maui sources, but in December they accepted delivery of the first tankerload of fuel from a new Kea'au refinery which is using algae and fungi to process trap grease from restaurants, as well as agricultural waste feedstock, such as unmarketable papayas and mangoes and sweet potatoes. Oahu and Maui are processing garbage and waste and sugar cane waste as well as refining recovered cooking oil. And a pilot project on the BI is working on converting eucalyptus. So there is a lot of interest in a variety of technologies.
University of Hawai'i at Manoa just got the greenlight for a pilot project to grow industrial hemp for biodiesel fuel production.
Also both HECO (Electric utility) and the Defense Department have made large commitments to buying biodiesel which are expected to fuel (sorry!) the supply side of the equation.
One of the finalists for the rehab contract of Volcano House at Volcanoes NP proposed a tested algae processing system to replace the septic system there, producing both biofuel and surplus electricity to feed into the grid, but unfortunately the winning bid was much more conservative. But I'm sure that a system like that will happen in the islands soon, because it works on two local issues... energy production and waste recovery... at the same time, while generating a positive cash flow from the investment.
Here's a review of all the renewable energy efforts in Hawaii http://www.heco.com/vcmcontent/FileS...wResources.pdf They are to be commended for this effort. I knew a lot of the pioneers of this way back in the early 70's and 80's and I'm happy to see how creative and imaginative they have been in finding numerous ways to "capture" energy
Personally, especially in a beautiful and fragile ecosystem like Hawaii's, I'd like to see more small windmills in neighborhoods and less monster wind farms like those you see blotting the landscape in California. Wind is certainly a great resource, but at what cost? Current reports from many different sources (this is just one) state that more than 573,000 birds are killed each year by these huge windmills. This includes endangered species such as bald eagles and other large birds. There has to be a way to provide wind energy without decimating our bird population. Perhaps a push for individuals or neighborhoods to install them in smaller versions. I don't know. Holland managed to figure it out without killing off their winged creatures. Let's bring them in!
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