100% Renewable Energy Goal For Hawaii: Governor Signs Bill
Hawaii Governor David Ige has signed a bill that sets the state’s renewable energy goal at 100% by 2045. In other words, in 30 years, Hawaii should be running only on electricity made by renewable energy — presumably a mix of solar, wind, and geothermal power. To put a slightly finer point on it, that means no fossil fuels!
“This [Legislative] Session has been a terrific one as far as advancing Hawaii’s efforts to continue to be at the forefront of this nation and our committment to end importing fossil fuels and really being committed to a 100 percent renewable future in the electricity sector,” explained Governor Ige.
Currently, Hawaii produces about 21% of its electricity from renewable energy and depends upon fossil fuels which are imported. The cost of electricity is high there, so switching to renewables will not only be better for the environment, it will most likely reduce the cost of electricity for residents and business owners quite a bit. Once fossil fuels are eliminated, the cost of electricity will no longer be connected to fluctuating oil prices.
“This isn’t just about getting off of fossil fuels. It’s as much about that as is saving money for the average consumer here in a place where we expend millions of dollars importing fossil fuels every year and the faster we can get off of that, the faster we can save money and boost our economy,” said State Rep. Chris Lee, D-Kailua-Waimanalo.
It was just about a month ago that the legislation to set such an ambitious goal was passed, but the governor still needed to sign it. It makes excellent sense for Hawaii to eventually become completely energy independent, both economically and environmentally.
Also, energy storage technologies appear poised to grow in parallel with the expansion of renewable energy. Obviously, these two industries complement each other very well, so a state that generates all its electricity from renewables would benefit greatly from the ability to store it.
The expanding EV trend is also a piece of the puzzle. Electric vehicles produce no tailpipe emissions, and in Hawaii they will eventually be charged with clean energy only. Will it be the first 100% renewable energy state in the US?
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Please! 100% renewable electricity is a worthy goal, but it’s a long way short of 100% renewable energy.
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well in Hawaii, it’s a tropical climate, they don’t need much heating, and solar Hot Water is trivial there. Cheap electricity also means EV cars make a lot of sense.
On at least this site if you can tell the difference between electric and total energy, you should lose you posting rights for a month.
-A lot of their electric goes to cooling, which they could cover in the cities with a distributed chill water system, they have deep cold water close to shore. HA was where government build a pilot OTEC center, prove it worked and told industry its in your hands now.
– Could have include land transportation to RE in same time frame just add a $2/gal gas tax and ICE import fee ($10k/car $20k truck, $30k heavy) could leave out farm tractors since don’t have EV yet. Use the raised funds to promote EV buses. cars, bikes.
Energy ≠ electricity only. Failing to make this very important distinction completely ruins the article.
I think it was perfectly clear. Maybe you are right though and some disclaimer should be added. Politely. Not like I would want to write. lol.
Clear? The headline and first paragraph are flat-out wrong, and the terms energy and electricity are used like they were interchangeable through-out the article, making most of it factually incorrect.
It’s like when some politicians underhandedly suggest that people’s power bills will go up if a certain oil pipeline isn’t built, by purposely confusing energy and oil — never mind the fact that almost no electricity comes from petroleum in the continental US.
Words do matter.
I disagree. No where in the article, title or body, was it confusing.
head line “100% Renewable Energy” which should have “100% Renewable Electricity”. So yes you are correct, it isn’t confusing it is wrong.
lol.
Hawaii generated less than 800Gwh in Feb: http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=HI#tabs-4
As the weather there is temperate, we can extrapolate that out to ~9.6Twh of electricity a year. Using the standard assumption of 5 hrs of sunlight per day per year, Hawaii would only need 2GW’s of solar panels (plus batteries) to provide all of their electrical needs. I’m sure that can be installed in far less time than 30 years.
So that leaves converting all local transportation and industry to electric. Should be feasible in 30 years. If we’re really ambitious and include biodiesel for boats and light aircraft, then Hawaii might really be able to be 100% renewable ENERGY by 2045!
True.
Governments do not like put them self under pressure, nor their string pullers.
The goal will be achieved much faster.
But a good gesture anyhow, congratulations to Hawaii !
( the mummies from the Bilderberg/G7 meeting talk about year 2100 as a target)
For boats there should be not problem to go BE too in the next years. Light aircraft BE should be feasible in 2045, too.
In city Utrecht, Netherlands they opened today a smart EV charging system.
the cars connected charge when there is overload of renew energy,
and provide energy to the net when there is energy need.
computor sensored, all automatic. Hawai needs a smart EV charging system for storage and EV transition. world premiere,
more info/ http://www.ditiswijk.nl
Electricity is so high in Hawaii, that they really have no choice, but to go 100% renewable energy. Their oil imports are very polluting and expensive also. Tesla’s Powerwall battery is desperately needed so homeowners can store power at night to charge electric cars. Solar powered velomobiles like the Organic Transit ELF would also be great for Hawaii.
It’s almost as if each state should have their own separate gigafactory.
Geothermal in Hawaii?
If geothermal resources exist near Hawaii, they should be used now.
There’s some geothermal installed. There’s local resistance.
Bob, what is the reason. Is it religious, or are they worried that it would open move lava vents?
You don’t have to drill far in HA to get to very hot rocks. 😉
Here’s a couple interesting reads. Opposition is something of a mismash. There’s a bit of NIMBY along with some of the crackpot stuff one hears about most things new and some religious opposition….
http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/geothermal-is-a-red-hot-topic/
http://deepgreenresistancehawaii.org/2014/12/28/new-geothermal-well-planned-typical-lies/
Obviously this is very unpatriotic and we need to nuke Hawaii before they get too far. If we don’t act quickly other states will follow and our country will fall like dominoes.