![]() And it spent 10 months in a hangar in Honolulu awaiting major repairs. Yes, it took 505 days to travel 26,000 miles at an average speed of 45 miles per hour. Mikulina recalled the around-the-world flight of Solar Impulse 2 in 20. I asked them if 100 percent reliance on renewable fuel sources includes commercial and military aircraft. Solar is already available at half the cost of LNG. While no political issue is ever entirely dead, LNG is no longer cost effective as an alternative fuel, they said. I asked Mikulina and Miyashiro if Liquefied Natural Gas is a dead issue in terms of becoming a “bridge” between oil and renewable sources. The foundation supports HB 559 and SB 1000, which require that new construction be EV ready. Installing the stations during construction would cost pennies compared to the cost of the structures. Private developers of Hawaii’s growing collection of high-rises are not installing charging stations in the parking garages. Mikulina and Miyashiro, who both drive electric cars, point out another anomaly in the move toward clean energy. The bills should see action in the current legislative session. To that end, the foundation is supporting HB 557 and SB 617, which clarify the law’s language and close the loopholes. “Blue Planet Foundation has been working to close this loophole for several years, so the judge’s ruling is a promising development in the right direction.” “We’re awaiting the final order for more clarity on what that means for the variance process going forward,” Miyashiro told me. The result has been a rubber-stamping of variance requests, leading to the installation of heaters powered by gas instead of solar.Įarlier this month, Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Crabtree ruled in favor of a hui of clean-energy advocates and against the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism regarding the water heaters. The state has been misinterpreting the language of a law that mandates solar water heaters in new residential construction. That doesn’t mean that everyone is embracing it. Solar not only is cheaper than fossil fuels it is becoming as reliable. That is changing as new technology increases the capacity of batteries that store energy from the sun for use later. The knock against solar has been that it works only when the sun is shining – when the clouds come in, the power goes out. But solar is the key to moving more quickly toward 100 percent renewables, Mikulina says. It’s now 280 times higher, at 700 megawatts.Ĭlean energy can come from many sources, such as wind, waves and geothermal. Rooftop solar contributed 2.6 megawatts of power a decade ago.The average use per home was 656 kilowatt hours in 2008. Residential energy use has declined dramatically.Hawaii had 160 electric vehicles registered in 2008.In 2008, 6 percent of Hawaii’s electrical power came from renewable sources.California has taken Hawaii’s lead, making 2045 its deadline for 100 percent conversion to renewable energy.Īnother reason for optimism is a study that Blue Planet Foundation conducted last year for the 10th anniversary of its founding by entrepreneur and philanthropist Henk Rogers. “Don’t worry about it just set a date,” he says, noting that having a deadline on the books forces the state’s electric utilities to do long-range planning. Mikulina says the year is not a critical factor. Blue Planet and other clean-energy advocates pushed for the year 2040 as the deadline legislators wanted 2050. Even choosing the year 2045 as the deadline was based on politics, not science. Political history shows that laws do not necessarily become realities. Another reason is that a state law that has been on the books since 2015 mandates a total conversion to renewables. Sit down for an hour with Executive Director Jeff Mikulina and Chief of Staff and Policy Director Melissa Miyashiro and one comes away with the sense that the state’s energy goal is clearly within reach, with 26 years still to go.Ī major reason, Mikulina says, is that “technology is changing by the day,” making power from renewable sources cheaper than energy produced from fossil fuels. ![]() It’s home to the Blue Planet Foundation, a nonprofit with the ambitious goal of guiding Hawaii on the road to producing 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2045. Visitors to the 17th floor at 55 Merchant St., a commercial tower in Downtown Honolulu, can immediately feel the energy.
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