Geothermal Is The Answer

The answer here in Hawai‘i is to increase renewable energy.

The question? World oil supplies are decreasing at an increasing rate while demand is increasing at an increasing rate, so oil prices will keep rising and it will go to the highest bidder. What do we do, so that we don’t have to bid for oil against the rest of the world?

Solar power stops at night, and requires batteries to keep it steadily available. Wind is not dependable; it’s intermittent.

Geothermal, on the other hand, is steady and dependable.

I was the only person from Hawai‘i to attend the Peak Oil conference in Houston this past October. We knew then that world oil supplies would not keep up with the world’s oil demand.

The best renewable energy source for the Big Island is geothermal. If we cooperatively decided to research how geothermal could help us, we would see that we could make machines that run with electric motors, instead of fossil fuel motors.

In a world where energy supplies are running out, geothermal is not.

I wonder what the gods have planned for us.

Comments

[damon]

Geothermal is the answer.

Recently, even Council Lady Emily Naeole who fought so hard against Geothermal, has came out and said that she is now in favor of it.

She even bitched about her $220.00 electric bill at a recent District 5 forum.

[James Weatherford]

Geothermal would seem to have much to offer us. Including not only electricity generation, but also direct use of steam (such as in food processing for sterilizing).
Still, let us not be blind to the limits of geothermal.
First and foremost, our cheapest source of energy is what we already waste. Conservation will provide a higher return quicker than anything -- initially.
Next, the proverbial caution of "not all eggs in one basket" is worth keeping in mind. Geothermal is not infinitely reliable. What happens at the next 8.0 quake when the rift shifts? Any risk to losing a geothermal plant sitting right on the rift?
Finally, geothermal electricity (unlike solar electricity and solar water heating) is very dependent on the grid with its own vulnerabilities, especially during earthquakes and high winds.
I like efficient use of diverse and distributed sources of energy.

[richard]

Aloha Damon:
I guess we all learned a lot about the value of the geothermal resource. Royalties go to the county, the state and OHA while significant amount of rents go to a private land owner. Properly placed, rents could go to OHA as well. Thus, benefiting the Hawaiian people more. There are many places around the island that could be explored for geothermal use.

[richard]

Aloha James:
Conservation and changing our habits is very important. I think that the state should help do exploratory wells to assess the geothermal resource on different parts of the island--to address "eggs in one basket".
I too like the idea of small projects. Although, I argue against depending on biofuel on an industrial scale, we have a small biodiesel kit that is appropriately sized for our farm usage. We plan to grow paln nuts for that. And, I think that redundancy and diversity is good.
You are right on!!

[charles hugh smith]

Just a thought on transmission line loss....if the geothermal is way doen Puna side, then getting it to Waimea and N. Kohala will incur some major line loss (via the power lines). That's a good reason to have some solar and wind up hawi side where the wind is steady. Major electrical useage is still in the daytime, so solar and wind could pick up the major load, enabling geothermal to pick up the nighttime/off-wind load. I kinda suspect there are very few no-wind days up North Kohala side between Mahukona and Hawi. Just some quick thoughts on balancing electrical loads and resources.

Good topic, thank you Richard.

[richard]

Howzit Charles:
Very good points about line loss and possible alternatives. The more renewable energy things we do, the less wealth gets transferred out of Hawaii's economy. If we can get out of the clutches of fossil fuel and "avoided cost", who knows, we may become a cost effective place to visit.

[Rodrigo Romo]

I like this chain of conversation. You all seem to be right on. The thing is that, the solution while in our hands, is not a single item. Diversification is key, we should definitely tap both into geo as well as wind, and couple this with strong financial incentives and creative financing options for home owners to install PV on their roofs. Save some of the old fossil fuel plants for back up of course. The other thing that needs major restructuring is the contracts that Helco has with the renewable energy producers (large scale). They cannot continue to buy at the "avoided cost" because the end user does not benefit economically from this and it MAKES NO SENSE!!. As far as the excuse of the difficulty and high cost of the transmission lines....the grid is already in place, and there are already wind farms on the windy points of the island, so we would only be adding capacity to an existing setting. Yes, wind can be unreliable, but not that unreliable in places like the South Point where it has got to be one of the best places on Earth for wind generation. There is only fourteen 1.4MW turbines up there at the time. With 100 turbines (and space there is) we could generate enough for the whole island. So the fact of the matter is, it certainly is possible to make this Island independent of fossil fuels for electric generation, but the right plan must be set in motion and the right authorities must get on the bandwagon......
How about creating a Civil Counsil for Energy Independence that would advise the legislation, government, utility company, etc. Should be created by civilians with no affiliations to any of the gvt branches nor the Utility to make it unbiased. It should have people well connected in the community and people well educated in engineering and renewable energy generation.....
Food for thought!

[Rorigo Romo]

Some interesting sites:
http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/wwg/windy.html
http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/maps_template.asp?stateab=hi

About the contracts:
Investors say South Point's consistently blowinf wind keeps the turbines twirling at one of the highest rates of any wind farm in the world.

"(Hawai'i Island) has a world-class treasure," said Kevin Walsh, managing director of GE Energy Financial Services.

But the wind power isn't lowering electricity bills even though it is locally generated, unlike the imported oil the state is so heavily reliant on.

HELCO pays for the wind farm electricity by calculating the "avoided cost" or the cost the utility would have to pay if it were to build or generate power on its own.

Lee said rates vary because they are tied to oil prices.

Boosting renewable energy sources on the Big Island would neither positively nor negatively impact consumer rates, he added.

(taken from: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Jul/18/ln/FP707180395.html)

[Gary Dalton]

Geothermal also has problems. The wells are going more to brine casusing loss of steam and more reinjection problems. Its very expensive to move a plant to a new area and or the cost of drilling new deeper wells. I understand their installing new equiptment to use the less hot brine but thats not a good sign. I,ve done some machine work for the drill rig and they are very very big expensive pieces of equiptment. If I recall they were over 8000 ft down looking for steam and that costs $$$.