Geothermal critical to energy sovereignty of Hawaii

Diamond Head, Honolulu, Hawaii, US (source: flickr/ snowpeak, creative commons)

Alexander Richter 26 Haz 2013

In recent editorial, a Hawaii native, wrote a passionate plea for geothermal energy in Hawaii. The author, Carmen Hulu Lindsay, is a trustee at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that recently voted to invest in Hu’ena Power, a development company planning to develop geothermal projects in Hawaii.

She raises the point that so clearly refers to many of other island states in the Pacific, namely the expensive dependence on oil for power generation. She also talks about the loud voices of a “dissenting minority”, that needs to be answered by those in favour of geothermal development.

In her statement, she says that today more than 75% of the electricity consumed in Hawaii is generated by oil-fueled generators. This makes electricity the most expensive in the United States. Today, Hawaiian residents pay 37.46 cents per kilowatt-hour, while a resident in Idaho paid 8.46 cents.

These high prices are hindering the start of new businesses and essentially limites economic growth and job creation… a similar story being told elsewhere, e.g. in Djibouti as raised in an article yesterday.

She passionately states that “developing the many renewable energy assets we are blessed with is a practical, way to say “NO” to being held hostage to rising oil prices determined by big players in far off places. Sure, there is a place for passion and protest. But we defeat ourselves if we cannot see the path to progress because our vision is obscured by all those protest signs we pick up, sometimes too hastily, when change is clearly needed.”

But – and this is important to quote here as well – she highlights the fact that any development is done with “representing the community’s interests and knowing how important it is to stay in dialogue with the community.”

Source: Carmen Hulu Lindsay in Honolulu Civil Beat