MAKANI FARM: Hawaii hopes to get 40 percent of its energy from renewable resources, like this wind farm in Hawi on the island of Hawaii.
Image: COURTESY OF HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC COMPANY
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Last January, Hawaii signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) that would make the Aloha State the country's most aggressive in pursuing renewable energy. By 2030, it plans to obtain 70 percent of its power from clean energy (40 percent from renewables and 30 percent from energy efficiency). Outstripping California's goal of 33 percent by 2020, the Hawaii initiative is a green light for clean-tech experts and enthusiasts to set up shop in the heart of the Pacific and may become a blueprint (or greenprint) for the rest of the country.
The ambitious scheme, which draws on the DoE's technical and financial assistance, may help Hawaii unshackle itself from the financials of fossil fuel. For 90 percent of its power, the state relies on imported oil, resulting in electricity that costs five times more than the national average of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.
"We are the most insecure state in the U.S., because so much of our energy is shipped in," says Theodore Liu, director of Hawaii's Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, one of the key players in implementing the 70 percent goal. "If for some reason our supply is disturbed by natural or man-made causes, we can't just plug into the mainland's grid. And so we are doing this for energy security, because we spend close to 10 percent of our GDP shipping money to foreign countries for oil, and because it will lower the cost of electricity, [as well]." Electricity generation also accounts for one third of the state's carbon dioxide emissions.
To gain energy sovereignty and meet its 40 percent renewable energy goal, Hawaii plans to plug into its famed, but as of yet unexploited, natural resources. Over the next couple of decades, the continuous trade winds, vast ocean swells, brilliant sunshine and broiling heat from geothermal vents will feed 1,000 megawatts of electricity into the island of Oahu's grid. Most of that megawattage—700 to be precise—will be incorporated over the next five years.
The largest contributor will be makani, or wind. Two proposed farms on neighboring Molokai and Lanai islands will generate a total of 400 megawatts of electricity, approximately 25 percent of Oahu's total generation capacity. Power from the farms would travel via an undersea cable to Oahu, where 70 percent of the state's population (905,000 people) live. Two 30-megawatt wind farms are already churning out carbon-less power on Maui and the island of Hawaii.
Thanks to strong offshore breezes, the turbines rotate quite regularly. Wind developers like to see them have a capacity factor of 30 percent, a measure of the average amount of energy delivered, but "we've found the winds to be very consistent with a capacity factor around 50 percent," remarks Harry Saunders, president of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, Inc., which owns most of the island of Lanai. The proposed 12,000-acre farm may go online in 2012.
A smattering of other technologies will deliver the remaining megawatts into the grid. Among the tried-and-true techniques is the solar photovoltaic farm; one already provides 500 kilowatts with the goal of delivering 1.2 megawatts by this summer. Tapping into geothermal energy should pipe in another eight megawatts. More novel technologies include one venture involving a 20-megawatt ocean thermal plant that uses the temperature difference between the Pacific's warm surface water and its cooler deep water to drive a heat engine. This prototype would be the first of its kind and cost around $200 million.
The initiative also includes a provision to address individual actions—namely, by overhauling the way people drive in Honolulu. Better Place, a Palo Alto, Calif., company, will build an electric vehicle (EV) network comprising charging and battery exchange stations, each powered by renewable energy. The network could be in full operation by 2012.
The less costly component of the clean energy initiative is energy efficiency. The state's main utility, the Hawaiian Electric Company, has agreed to a number of measures to reach the 30 percent efficiency goal, including increasing the adoption of solar water heating. The utility would install this equipment as well as advanced meters to provide customers greater control of their electricity use. They would also decouple revenues from sales like California does. This enables a utility to be compensated, instead of financially penalized, for encouraging energy savings (which effectively cuts income). By decoupling, they can raise rates or charge a flat monthly fee. Even so, a consumer's bill would remain largely unchanged, allowing the utility to reap a higher profit from fulfilling customers' lower energy demands at the same rates.
When all is said and done, Hawaii will be much different and better off, says Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation, an organization based in Honolulu that envisions ending the use of carbon-based fuels on Earth beginning with Hawaii. "You'll see a lot fewer power lines, more rooftops covered with photovoltaics, and people driving to work in their EV," Mikulina forecasts. "And there will be $5 billion or $6 billion circulating in our economy because we're not shipping it away for oil." Hawaii certainly seems ready to become even more of a paradise.
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29 Comments
Add CommentThis is excellent news for Hawaii; a great use of local resources to benefit the locals and free them from global energy cartels. There should also be a move towards sugar cane ethanol to reduce or eliminate the need to import (by ship) gasoline.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt used to be said that the U.S. would be a shining beacon of light, providing a way forward for all of human kind. This statement is in regards to religion and moral behavior. Through this huge move, I believe the Hawaiian people are showing the rest of us mainlanders how we can become a beacon again... only this time for the environment. Thank you to the people of Hawaii, -- those who work in politics, and those everyday people who are about to start living the lifestyle changes that will hopefully inspire us all! We need your example, and admire your ability to make advancements today for a more secure tomorrow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1,000 megawatts in uncertain extremely expensive iffy wind/geothermal power over 10 years or one Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactor in five years which could be build if Obama had a lick of sense for around1.5 billion dollars on a site the size of a coal plant.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat 200 million spend on a 20 megawatt ocean thermal plant would have bought 8 25 megawatt Hyperion small nuclear plants for service in 2013 and that's at the current selling price.
Hawaii's citizens need to realize how much these so called "green" no nukes types are costing them.
I agree... Putting nuclear facilities in areas with active volcanos is a much better solution. There is absolutely no way that could backfire.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot all the Hawaiian Islands have active volcanoes. Both nuclear and geothermal options should be explored. Because there is no long distance driving, electric cars make a lot of sense.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you decide to go nuclear then you have to ask; Which island wants to become known as the nuclear waste dump of Hawaii?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhere there are volcanoes there are also earthquakes, which also would make nuclear power plants more dangerous.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDamn Guys, First of all in the future if we keep funding space and maybe just a bit more, we will have space elevators! This will make it EXTREMELY cheap to send shit into space.... Then we launch that waste to the SUN! It's all about the space elevators in the future. Second... Nukes are absolutely the most logical way to go... Go find an actual nuclear disaster that the US was responsible for that actually harmed people and then stack that up against MINING OPERATIONS and countless other industry's that have been more dangerous to our citizens... It's a no brainer really...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlways the nuclear numbskulls!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyway, Hawaii can show the way. Good for them if they spur California and Texas to make greater efforts. And if they can find a way to implement Ultra-High Voltage Direct Current transmission under the Pacific to the mainland, they will change the world the day that energy comes online.
Iceland has similar or even greater potential to be the energy hub of the Atlantic.
Hawaii is a very good site for wind power since it is a pretty windy place. That being said 50% capacity factor is still nowhere near that needed for baseload generation although it's better than the typical 20-25% achieved elsehwere. Hawaii is also a pretty sunny place so solar panels will also be more successful but only start out at 50% capacity factor because the sun does not shine at night.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLeads us to that problem that you need electricity all of the time and voltage/frequency have to be stable. That's why you need reliable 24/7 baseload generation.
Hawaii can generate a lot of electricity with wind and solar but will still need baseload power, which for them is oil. Their electric rates are high. They will get higher because you still need the existing power plants.
Are they willing to pay even more for electricity?
The renewable cheerleaders have to realize that wind and solar are not baseload generation. Not even in Hawaii.
Fantastic Idea. We can just throw the waste into Kilauea. That will add some spice to their otherwise peaceful eruptions. Even if the waste problem went away, it's not a good idea to be building nuclear facilities on earthquake prone islands. Geothermal energy on the other hand is not variable at all in the way wind or solar is, and besides on Hawaii, there is a lot of wind and a lot of sun. The problem of what to do when the sun goes down has been solved, we store the solar energy as heat and use it to drive turbines at night.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisoutlawxxx21,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou exactly right, we'll just pile up nuclear waste waiting for your space elevator... Its a good thing others are seeking solutions for both the present and the future, not just the far distant science fiction future.
Sethdayal,
Some of us believe spending the extra money to get energy from renewables is worth it, even if it were true that renewable energy will cost them more than that from a nuclear power plant.
To all of the eco-cheerleaders. You are being sold a bag of goods by a bunch of con men. Wind and solar cannot replace base load generation because they are highly variable. It doesnt matter how much of them you have. The output of these sources goes to zero at times unpredictably. Yes, there is a lot of wind and sun at times. And at other times there is none. I assume you want electricity all the time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisstevengenille solar energy is absorbed by PV cells which produce a voltage. They dont have any energy storage capability. In fact the only way to store renewable energy is to charge lead-acid batteries when you have excess. Geothermal sources have been available since we began producing electricity. If they were prevalent and economically viable wed already have loads of them.
No matter how much we hope and change the laws of physics will not change. They dont care about politics. You cant drop a stone and have it float up to the sky magically no matter how much you wish it to happen. Gravity wont allow it. Same with the grid. You cant have highly variable unreliable power sources and expect to have a steady reliable power output from these sources no matter how much you wish and hope.
Wake up and come up with a realistic plan!
True, as things CURRENTLY stand, many renewable sources of energy, cannot power the whole of america alone. Even though advances are being made all the time with respect to storing excess energy in the form of heat for solar.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the specific case of hawaii, I think few places are better suited to have wind make up a significant portion of power generation.
Geothermal, being a renewable form of power generation is not variable and can in some places produce large quantities of baseload energy. Indeed certain areas in hawaii are well suited for this.
I agree that improvements need to be made to the grid to cater to such variable forms of power generation, including some form of storage. An island in spain is planning to build enough wind to power their entire small island by renewable resources. To store energy, they pump water, up a mountainside when excess energy is in the grid, and when the wind drops off they use the water to create energy through the typical hydro electrical dam. A very simple and effective solution to this problem.
I just find it interesting that when it comes to renewable resources there are so many nay sayers, who are all for piling up nuclear reactor after reactor? Are these the same people that think carbon sequestering is ready to be used on a wide scale to continue our dependence on coal?
Truthe,
What would you deem a realistic plan?
The islands have the capacity to provide all of their base load power from thermal and biomass. Biomass is readily available in the form of green waste, crop residue, biosolids, livestock manure, and others. Gasification of renewables is carbon neutral and very economical. It can also be decentralized to a high degree and provide distributed power.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisC. Van Milligen
cavm@aol.com
Truthe, you said, "stevengenille solar energy is absorbed by PV cells which produce a voltage. They don't have any energy storage capability. In fact the only way to store renewable energy is to charge lead-acid batteries when you have excess." You'll notice if you read my comment that I did not say PV. In fact there are other ways of using the sun to generate electricity. One, that I was referring to, takes the suns rays and uses them to heat a substance (some use liquid salt). That stored heat is then used to generate base load electricity which can be used day or night. The funny thing is that this technology was highlighted by SciAm about a year ago. Further, as I'm sure you are aware, we make advances in technology all the time, the capabilities we have today to generate geothermal electricity are far better than those that existed 40 years ago. See Binary and Kalina systems http://www.geo-energy.org/aboutGE/basics.asp For Solar thermal check out http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/renewables/solarthermal/index.html and see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWind can also be used to store energy to be used when it is not windy, see Shoreliner11's comments.
Wake up and smell the progress!
Well aren't we just precious!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGee, it's not hard to be energy independent when living on an island for goodness sakes. Especially when you are not directly connected to the mainland's huge energy systems, like natural gas, electricity, etc.
But, don't let those sneaky coal fired plants build on your island and produce cheap, efficient electricity for your consumers, oh heck no! Let those misfit consumers buy overly priced power. Let them buy windmill power that produces huge amounts of unclean electricity into their homes. What those electronics sputter, and snap into megabite nothingness. Its OK, because Obama and the rest of the Green advocates have lots of cash to cover for lost electronics due to unclean frequencies getting into the electricity grid burning up all those fancy computer parts and control systems. Isn't life grand! Liberals always have somebody else to blame for stupid actions on their part.
Less1leg,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI see... so because Hawaii is small in comparison to the rest of the united states their efforts towards renewable energy are somehow less important?
If you read the article, you would have noticed it talked about Hawaii having to ship in all of its coal, which makes coal not as cheap as most places in the US. And please explain how wind power is unclean? There's not much evidence of a coherent message in your post, other than being sarcastic and snide. So if you're going to contribute, stick to trying to promote constructive discussion.
I would suggest "Shoreliner" go back and read the article and get his facts straight.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been working on renewables for nearly 40 years including a small assistance to electric power generation on Hawaii (the big island). a bagass co-gen with dieasel back up.
All the wishes of dreamy eyed eco's will not change the laws of physics and economics. The only dependable renewables that are economical are Hydro-electric and a breeder reactor. All others have major draw backs in cost and dependablity even geothermo is not dependable enough for base power supply. Solar, wind, wave, biomass may be wonderful to suppliment the system but do not solve the needs of base power supply for an industrial nation.
PG, Wouldn't a renewable plant with a diesel back up use considerably less oil than that required by the existing oil burning power plants anyhow? Further what are the problems with solar thermal that you are talking about? What is wrong with more aggressive usage of available geothermal? Luckily for the world the laws of physics do not need to change. Geothermal and Solar Thermal can be generated in Hawaii now for less than the direct cost of importing and burning oil, not to mention all of the unknown indirect costs and potentials for oil spills and environmental destruction. Besides the goals that they are calling for are reasonable, they don't want to get rid of all old production tomorrow. Brushing off viable technologies in favor of expensive dirty fossil fuels is irresponsible and shortsighted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPG,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI did read the article, and please point out any fact I stated that was in contradiction to the article. I personally found this line quite interesting,
"For 90 percent of its power, the state relies on imported oil, resulting in electricity that costs five times more than the national average of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour."
The current price of energy on Hawaii makes renewable energy sources more economical for the average Hawaii consumer than say in California. Again, like I said above, the ability to store this energy would greatly increase its usage (note the example I cited above about moving water up a mountainside to a reservoir with excess energy).
I find it interesting that some can be proponents of innovation when it comes to carbon sequestration methods for coal power plants, while often they can ignore and belittle any innovation on the renewable energy source side (not saying this is you PG, just a observation of many). Maybe it's just their adherence to that status quo for as long as possible. Like I said above, where it stands currently, renewable energy sources alone cannot provide 100% of our power. Does that mean we should be building more fossil fuel driven power plants (natural gas is ok), NO.
Can someone explain what is meant by obtaining 30% of clean energy from "energy efficiency"? Does this mean they are increasing their efficiency based on current levels? Efficiency isn't a generating process, it is a result of a process.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo let me see. There's plenty of untapped geothermal. There are many viable ways to store wind and solar energy. Punping water up some mountainsidews sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWill one of the eco cheerleaders please tell me what the problem is? Why aren't power producers building stuff as fast as they can?
The answer is that these sources of energy are not economically viable even relative to Hawaii's already expensive electricity.
The only way anyone would ever build a wind mill or solar farm is to get a government sibsidy because otherwise it just doesn't pay. That way we all pay for Hawaii's power. That is the only progres I smell here.
Wind power on some sites in the islands would be a wonder suppliment to their electrical needs. Some of the islands wind sites are awesome. But most Eco's say, "hell no not if I might see them" and they kill birds! How about wave power Hawaii has great waves, only not off my beach! Because of micro climates most of the good solar sites are in more remote areas and each of these has groups of eco's to protect them from encrochment. Most geothermo is dry and needs water injection to be usefull, this in a place that is short of good water. So the easyest, fastest way to get more power is site a diesel generator.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is easy to be an armchair engineer. I've spent 50 years getting things done in the real world. Many wonderful sounding solutions are not so wonderful in the real world.
For those of you who think I'm one of those anti people I must point out that I've been trying to site real alternative power systems of any size for over 40 years and have had very few successful efforts. It has to actually work, on paper and in the field.
Energy coming off of the wind generators is unclean, because of its unstable generation, dirty transmission is produced by wind power, and requires large filtering which dampens the frequency transients coming from its generation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere have been many studies detailing the poor quality of generation coming from wind generators, and the emf's being produced by these systems. There is considerable damaging electrical interference coming from then into the surrounding areas.
These power providers are now installing filters, and bearing the cables to help contain their effects to the surrounding areas, and to the damage their do to the wildlife.
don't be mistaken, wind generators do a lot of damage to the surrounding area, and wildlife, and people. Not to mention the dirty generation they produce.
But you don't read too much about it, unless you live near them and notice the effects of the production.
What is your solution then?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDirty energy from a dirty source,
dirty energy from its alternatives.
Do you have any real ideas, or simply complaints?
I'm a firm advocate of nuclear power, but Hawaii is a great place to develop renewables. It's a bit like the song 'New York, New York, if you can make it there you can make it anywhere',
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnly for Hawaii and renewables if you can't make it there you can't make it anywhere.
For nuclear energy and Hawaii the relatively small population means that it would be unwise to build traditional big nuclear stations, as it would constitute too great a proportion of the grid and if it went down would cause severe problems.
Smaller reactors or the Russian floating reactors would seem better ideas
Personally, I am keen on liquid fluoride thorium reactors, which were abandoned in the 60's after successful demos as they are lousy at producing weapons grade materials!
http://www.energyfromthorium.com/forum/index.php
Concerns about earthquakes, whilst real, should be mitigated by Japanese experience, where the leaks have been fairly small from ancillary systems rather than breaching the main containment.
In that respect it should be noted that geothermal would also need careful siting, as it can produce earthquakes:
http://scitizen.com/screens/blogPage/viewBlog/sw_viewBlog.php?idTheme=14&idContribution=1035
Solar thermal for hot water is a no-brainer, and wind prospects are very good with 50% capacity.
The more sources you have, the easier it is to balance the grid.
German experiments in using renewables to generate all power used a lot of biomass producing biogas to balance the grid:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeremy_leggett/2008/02/renewed_energy.html
Solar power is also very favourable for Hawaii, as it peaks pretty much when it is most needed due to the problem there being too much heat not too little.
Either solar thermal or solar installations of panels in 2-10MW arrays close to where it is needed so reducing costs would seem well-placed for peak load:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/04/solar-thermal-municipal-power.html
There are no perfect and pollution free ways of generating energy - even from solar panels the pollution released from their manufacture is considerable.
In the real world the solution is to balance risks and minimise the issues with imperfect alternatives.
Still, you can't do worse than coal, which unfortunately ends up as the default solution whilst renewables and nuclear advocates fight it out.
Nuclear tech is among theleast "green" energy sources, the constant maintenance, danger of radiation sickness , and waste disposal issues negate any "green" advantages or really most of the cost savings of nuclear power.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm surprised Hawaii hadn't done this sooner. It's hard to imagine that paradise imports and burns dirty oil in power plants, when they're surrounded by strong sun (solar heat and photovoltaics) as well as strong trade winds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGranted, the wind doesn't always blow, and the sun doesn't always shine. But if they built several hydro-storage facilities at the top of any one of their several extinct volcanoes to choose from, they will have all the power they need. 100% sustainable (zero oil) by 2040.