View non-flash version
www.sname.org/sname/mt July 2013 is dependency worked well while oil remained rel- atively inexpensive and plentiful. However, it is no longer sustainable. Oil dependency threatens Hawaii in several ways: ? energy security (because oil tankers must travel thousands of miles from the Middle East, Russia, or Southeast Asia) ? economy (as oil prices have increased and become more volatile) ? local and global environment (as Hawaii has a lot to lose from rising sea level and the extreme weather of global climate change). e price of imported products has long been high in Hawaii, the most remote island chain on earth. Some call it the paradise tax.? However, in the last two years, electricity prices have risen to new heights and are staying there. e meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear reactor after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 led Japan to shut down its eet of 50 nuclear plants, which supplied a quarter to a third of its electricity. Japan reopened mothballed power plants and ramped up purchases of the same fuel oil that Hawaii uses for most electrical generation. Hawaii is in the Asia-Paci c fuel market and must pay the going rate in that market. Even as Japan restarts a few nuclear plants, fuel oil prices will be high in Hawaii for some time to come. Hawaiian Electric has sought to increase renewable energy since the 1980s. In 2008, the utility joined the governor of Hawaii and the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in a clean energy agreement. Its goal is that 70% of Hawaiis energy for ground transportation and electricity will come from clean sources by 2030, spe- ci cally 30% through energy e ciency and 40% through increased renewable energy. Hawaiis renewable resources are bountiful. Sun and wind are strong. Fallow sugar and pineapple lands can grow biomass and biofuel crops. Plentiful refuse can be burned to generate electricity, keeping it out of over- owing land lls. Volcanic activity on Hawaii island, and perhaps Maui, has huge geothermal energy. e emerg- ing smart grid and electric vehicles also have a role in a clean energy future. And in every direction one looks is the ocean, which has long held the promise, so far unful lled, of provid- ing the islands a signi cant part THE UTILITY PERSPECTIVE: Hawaii depends on oil for nearly 90% of its primary energy, more than any other state in the nation. Crude oil imported to Hawaii is re ned for aviation fuel and gasoline and diesel for ground and sea transportation, with the sludge-like residual fuel oil left to generate electricity. HAWAII Hawaiian Electric and ocean renewable technologies By Arthur Seki and Stephen Luckett (continued on page 63)