The Oil Drum

38 comments on Hawaii's "Energy for tomorrow"

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Leanan on January 18, 2006 - 11:18pm

Pie in the sky. Heck, pie somewhere in orbit, high above the space station.

I really think Hawai`i is going to be a bad, bad place to ride out the peak. They are so dependent on oil. Everything's shipped or flown in. They can't be self-sufficient in food, let alone biodiesel. The ancient Hawaiians suffered frequent dieoffs, even a much lower population density than exists now.

Hawai`i has tried to break its oil addiction. Their economy is dependent on tourism, and the last thing they want is an oil spill ruining the beaches. But nothing's panned out. They've tried electrical plants that burn garbage, geothermal plants, ocean thermal plants, wind farms, solar power, etc. Lots of homes in Hawai`i have solar water heaters on their roofs (as we did, when I was growing up there). But it's a drop in the bucket. They still get most of their power from oil.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Heading Out on January 18, 2006 - 11:32pm

But perhaps, like Iceland, they can tap the geothermal power to generate hydrogen and build a fuel economy out of that.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Leanan on January 19, 2006 - 7:50am

Only the Big Island has geothermal, and most of the population lives far away on Oahu.

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

The contents below are paid advertisements. Their appearance does not imply an endorsement by The Oil Drum.

“If kindness and comfort are, as I suspect, the results of an energy surplus, then, as the supply contracts, we could be expected to start fighting once again like cats in a sack.”

—George Monbiot