Crisis Leads to Ingenuity (Part Two)
By Hawaii State Senator Will Espero
In 2007, on Oahu alone, it cost more than $2 million dollars a day to import oil to produce electricity, an annual total of around $750 million dollars. One person testifying at an energy hearing at this past session described Hawaii’s dependence on oil as extreme, not only in generating electricity, but also for cars, jet fuel, and utility gas, as well as a basis for many consumable products and fertilizer for agricultural products. According to one source, at least eight farms and Oahu’s last dairy closed down within the last year, citing higher transportation and feedstock costs as primary contributing factors.
Cars
Last year I introduced a bill to set benchmarks for importing electric cars to Hawaii. Under the bill, the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, would come up with a plan to increase the number of electric cars in the state. By 2015, a minimum of 10% of the cars imported into Hawaii must be powered by electricity or alternative fuel. By 2025, that number goes up to 20%. I plan to reintroduce the bill next Session.
Hybrid-electric buses make up 10% of the City & County of Honolulu’s bus fleet. By 2013, the City plans to have 50% of its bus fleet hybrid-electric. Better Place is planning to invest by 2011 in a subscriber-based electric battery system for electric cars sold in Hawaii. By owning and re-charging the batteries in new electric cars, Better Place would substantially reduce the purchase price of electric cars, putting electric car ownership within reach for many Hawaii residents.
California, along with 17 other states – half the population of the country — put in their law books a requirement that by 2009, automobile manufacturers design cars that emit lower levels of greenhouse gases. A key way to reduce emissions is to increase fuel efficiency. I’m pondering introducing a bill to add Hawaii to that list of states so that our drivers can stop paying so much at the pump. Please let me know what you think about this.
Daimler Mercedes-Benz has received more than 30,000 reservations for its Smart Car, a car used widely throughout Europe, and which was recently put into the American market. The Smart Car’s base price is $12,000. It gets 33 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway. Addressing concerns that passenger safety was being traded for fuel efficiency, the 1,800 pound car has a steel safety cage and four standard air bags to protect passengers, and received the highest rating of good in front-end and side-impact testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Institute’s president said the Smart Car’s engineers designed a high level of safety into a very small package.
The Smart Car’s fuel efficiency still trails the Toyota Prius, which gets 48 mpg in the city and 46 mpg on the highway. Toyota is working on an array of alternative fuel cars in addition to its Prius. Progressive Insurance earlier this spring announced that it will co-sponsor a $10 million competition for the most production ready, most fuel efficient cars. The winners will race in the summer of 2009.
Alternative Energy
The Legislature found that encouraging the development of renewable energy is in the public’s interest. This year Hawaii became the first state in the nation to require that, as of 2010, all new single family homes must have solar water heaters. You might have seen news stories about “cow power” providing electricity in Vermont, Connecticut, Oregon, and parts of Canada. Another law we passed permits farmers to install energy facilities on agricultural land, provided that agriculture remain the primary use of the land. Farm methane is one of the options available under the bill, along with wind turbines or solar panels. You may already be familiar with the clothesline bill that allows clotheslines that are out of view, despite association rules to the contrary. The bill was vetoed by the Governor. The Senate overrode the veto, but the House could not get 2/3 of its members to vote to do so.
In addition to these bills, the Legislature approved Special Purpose Revenue Bonds (SPRBs) to assist energy companies to raise investment capital to finance projects. Here’s a rundown:
H2 Technologies plans to construct on the island of Hawaii, a hydrogen generation research, development and manufacturing facility, and a gasoline- or diesel-to-hydrogen automobile conversion garage to transition car owners to using hydrogen rather than imported petroleum-based fuel.
Jacoby Development- Geoplasma intends to plan, design, construct, and acquire land on the Big Island for a plasma arc municipal solid waste processing system. In its simplest sci-fi movie description, the plasma arc zaps landfill with hot-as-the-sun temperatures and produces methane which is used to generate electricity.
Oceanlinx, in its Maui Wave Energy project will tap hydrokinetic power to generate electricity. Oceanlinx will plan, design and construct the facility off Pe’ahi near “Jaws” at Maui’s north coast and supply electricity to Maui Electric Company. The technology is being used in projects under development in Rhode Island, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. The waves flowing through the twin turbines forces air to reverberate through a column, powering a turbine to generate energy. The project is expected to generate enough electricity for as many as 1,600 Maui homes by 2009.
Hui Mana ‘Oma’o (”Consolidated Green Power”) received a SPRB for renewable energy projects on Oahu. Its principals and affiliates have long been laboring in both the cogeneration and renewables markets in Hawaii.
Sopogy is a high tech company producing concentrated solar power systems. You may have read about the parabola in Australia, Spain, and California. Sopogy will plan, design, construct, equip, and operate a solar farm power plant on Oahu.
Change is coming. The public and private sectors are working toward decreasing our dependence on imported oil. The benefits are clear: we can increase our national security, decrease our economic vulnerability, reduce our need to spend heavily on military intervention when our foreign oil suppliers may be threatened, and help our cash-strapped residents and businesses be better able to make ends meet.
Senator Will Espero represents the 20th Senatorial District (Waipahu, Ewa, Ewa Beach and West Loch) on the Island of Oahu. He also serves as the Chair of the Senate’s Public Safety Committee.