Hawaii Wants To Be First State To Go 100% Renewable Energy

[Webster]

Huffington Post: Hawaii Wants To Be The First State To Run Completely On Renewable Energy

With strong trade winds, volcanic heat and abundant solar and hydropower, the Hawaiian islands have a plethora of natural resources. Yet the state is America’s largest consumer of fossil fuels per capita, according to Hawaii’s Environmental Council for the Office of Environmental Quality Control.

A bill currently going through the state's legislature aims to change that by setting the ambitious goal of using renewable energy exclusively by 2050. If it passes, Hawaii could be the first state in the country to meet all of its electricity demand with renewable resources.

Mark Glick, the Hawaii State Energy Office energy administrator, said that economically speaking, the bill makes sense. Energy available from Hawaii’s numerous renewable sources “competes favorably today with the cost of oil,” he said, making a 100 percent goal “both lofty and achievable.”

“We increased our renewable portfolio standards in 2009 to current levels,” Glick said. The state set a goal of getting 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015. Today, Hawaii is close to 23 percent, he noted, “and 2015 isn’t finished yet.” Given that pace, the bill's proposal seems realistic. It establishes goals of 25 percent of electricity sales to be renewable by 2020, 40 percent by 2030, 70 percent by 2035 and 100 percent by 2050, “unless the acquisition of renewable energy is not beneficial to Hawaii’s economy.”

Dawn Lippert, the founder of the Honolulu-based Energy Excelerator and chair of the board of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, said that establishing stretch goals are “very powerful tools to get stakeholders to align to action. When we set that [2030] goal, many people thought that it couldn’t be done by 2030. And now what we see is really significant momentum in steps toward that goal. We’re farther along that path than we thought we would be.”

Hawaii has at least 50 renewable energy projects spread over five islands, including the state’s only geothermal plant on the eastern rift zone of the Kilauea volcano. Thanks in large part to that geothermal plant, Hawaii Island (also known as the Big Island) is running on nearly 50 percent renewable energy. The plant produces electricity that is cheaper than petroleum fuels in Hawaii and generally cheaper than other forms of renewable electricity.

Not everyone in Hawaii, however, is on board with the renewable energy goals. Big hotels in Waikiki and other resort areas, for instance, use generators powered by natural gas as a way to cut their electricity bills. Honolulu Civil Beat reported that a director for Starwood Hawaii wrote in opposition testimony to the measure that self-generators are an efficient way to produce electricity from fossil fuels and benefit customers with a "dramatic reduction in overall energy costs."

While Hawaii's plan is incredibly ambitious because it would encompass an entire state, it isn't the only place in the U.S. with a goal of going 100 percent renewable. The city of San Francisco aims to have its electricity grid go fully renewable by 2020, and San Diego’s goal is 2035.

Globally, Iceland is already using 100 percent renewable energy, and Scotland and Denmark also have similar goals in place. But Lippert emphasizes that for her, this isn’t a race to be first.

“As global citizens, we want everybody in this race. Fossil fuels and clean energy are global challenges and we’re all better off if everybody’s headed in this direction,” she said.

Is this a realistic goal for Hawaii...or a craven attempt to appeal to environmentalists?

 

[Dee]

Huffington Post: Hawaii Wants To Be The First State To Run Completely On Renewable Energy


Is this a realistic goal for Hawaii...or a craven attempt to appeal to environmentalists?

I think it's entirely doable and not just a silly attempt to appease environmentalists (although the pigs itching to score their next few millions and billions off coal, natural gas, and petroleum might have a heart attack (we can only wish)). We all know in the back of our minds that we're going to have to figure out a way to utilize renewable sources of energy before something catastrophic happens and we can't reverse it.

 

[Webster]

I think it's entirely doable and not just a silly attempt to appease environmentalists (although the pigs itching to score their next few millions and billions off coal, natural gas, and petroleum might have a heart attack (we can only wish)). We all know in the back of our minds that we're going to have to figure out a way to utilize renewable sources of energy before something catastrophic happens and we can't reverse it.

FWIW, I think its' entireably within reach for Hawaii to do; if the states are, as we'd like to believe, the "incubators of democracy", then one way to show that something works to do try it in one state, as with Hawaii's plan in the OP, and then see if it works. If it does, other states will adopt it; if not, then likewise.

As I've long said, Dee, I would love to see a world where we don't have to use fossil fuels...until that day arrives, though, I myself have no problem with the use of fossil fuels, though personally, I'd much rather us switch over to nuclear energy and lessen our usage on fossil fuels, but that's just my two cents there.

 

[Dee]

FWIW, I think its' entireably within reach for Hawaii to do; if the states are, as we'd like to believe, the "incubators of democracy", then one way to show that something works to do try it in one state, as with Hawaii's plan in the OP, and then see if it works. If it does, other states will adopt it; if not, then likewise.

As I've long said, Dee, I would love to see a world where we don't have to use fossil fuels...until that day arrives, though, I myself have no problem with the use of fossil fuels, though personally, I'd much rather us switch over to nuclear energy and lessen our usage on fossil fuels, but that's just my two cents there.

It's entirely doable here on the mainland, too, but it's a matter of money at this point and the ones in control unwilling to make the switch.

 

[Jazzy]

I just saw this video that I found interesting:
The Engineering Struggle To Outfit Hawaii With Solar Power
In Hawaii, where 12 percent of the homes have solar panels, handling the surplus power is putting pressure on the state’s biggest utility, which is fighting to reduce what it pays for the energy.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I say we send all the leftists, liberals and socialists to Hawaii and leave them to it while government forces this action into there state and they can then deal with all the horrible unintended consequences from such a action. If we can get all of these people across America to go I am sure we could start a successful go fund me campaign to help these people make the move. If it is a good idea the free market will do it in a steady fashion as the bugs get worked out over time without a government wasting tax payers money and hurting a economy under the false premise of good for the people.

 

[Webster]

I say we send all the leftists, liberals and socialists to Hawaii and leave them to it while government forces this action into there state and they can then deal with all the horrible unintended consequences from such a action. If we can get all of these people across America to go I am sure we could start a successful go fund me campaign to help these people make the move. If it is a good idea the free market will do it in a steady fashion as the bugs get worked out over time without a government wasting tax payers money and hurting a economy under the false premise of good for the people.

Like I said in an earlier post, this is one of those times where, if we truly believe the states are "the incubators of democracy", this would be a good test of it; if Hawaii can succeed, more power to them. If not, then other states will likely shy away from it. Its' also one of those occasions where government does have a role to play...maybe not the role the Left would have them play, but a role nonetheless.