LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i has no other option right now but to rely on imported oil, energy experts say. Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative uses 32 million gallons of the natural resource annually. “Drastic fuel changes … affect our customers,” KIUC President
LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i has no other option right now but to rely on imported oil, energy experts say.
Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative uses 32 million gallons of the natural resource annually.
“Drastic fuel changes … affect our customers,” KIUC President and CEO Randy Hee said.
Burning sugarcane and “woody biomass” is an option Pacific West Energy President William Maloney said he has been working with KIUC to implement on 7,500 acres of Gay & Robinson land on the Westside.
“We have so much farm land that’s just sitting there,” said Kekaha community activist Bruce Pleas, who believes the production of biofuel would be a sustainably renewable route which would not be “at the mercy of someone else.”
It would move Kaua‘i out of the “oil loop” of rising and falling fuel costs, he said.
“A good reason to get away from petroleum is we’re not held hostage by the price of oil per barrel,” Hee said in a Sept. 11 interview.
On the other hand, Dr. Gordon LaBedz of Surfrider Kaua‘i said he opposes the idea of biofuels because they “require a tremendous amount of petroleum” to produce; the biomass would need fertilizers, pesticide and herbicides to grow.
“Generally, their input of energy equals the output of energy,” he said Sunday. “It’s always better to eat food rather than to burn it for fuel.”
Either way, Hanalei community activist Brad Parsons said alternative resources need to be actualized sooner rather than later because the future of energy is “going to be different.”
“KIUC is avoiding taking chances from the way they’ve done things in the past,” he said Sunday. “They have been sticking to what’s tried and true from the past.”
Hawai‘i’s Renewable Portfolio Standard proposes 20 percent of the island’s energy will be generated by renewable sources by 2020, according to KIUC’s 2008 to 2023 Strategic Plan.
Hawai‘i’s greenhouse gas legislation requires by 2020 greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to 1990 levels.
“This requirement may effectively exceed the Renewable Portfolio Standard” because KIUC’s projected load is expected to double what it was in 1990 by 2020. Therefore, KIUC would be required to generate 50 percent of its energy from carbon-neutral or non-carbon sources, the Strategic Plan states.
Renewable energy “can’t be intermittent,” Hee said, regarding sources such as wind or solar which fluctuate due to unpredictable weather conditions.
Combining renewables of different characteristics together, on the other hand, would “complement or negate each other for overall acceptable levels of stability,” Parsons said.
Another factor in getting renewables “up and running,” Hee said, is the expense.
Renewable energy sources are expensive, Parsons said, but that is “mostly for the upfront investment costs.
“After, most renewable technologies are less expensive than fossil fuel operating costs,” he said. “Those initial investments may be less doable a few years from now in an uncertain economic environment.”
Nonetheless, there’s “nothing clean” about energy generation, Pleas said, adding that even solar panels come at a production and material cost to the environment.
“The best fuel for energy is conservation and not wasting,” LaBedz said. “Using things in a reasonable, rational means will allow us to have more fuel at cheaper prices. Lower mileage cars, using less electricity is by far the most reasonable way to conserve.”
•Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
