Odd Couple in Oil Addiction Fight: Algae and OTEC

Pat Takahashi and Andy Twomey after today's Energy Futures show.

Monday’s Energy Futures program on Hawaii Public Radio kicked off with a call from Ted Liu, director of the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism that’s hosting this week’s Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Expo and Summit.

With the Expo dominating energy news in the Aloha State this week, Energy Futures invited two participating companies to be on the show – Lockheed Martin and Phycal Hawaii. Lockheed, of course, has decades of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) experience, while Phycal is a start-up company with plans to harvest oil from algae as feedstock for liquid fuels, including eventually becoming a replacement for diesel and jet fuel.

Dr. Ted Johnson, the public face of Lockheed’s OTEC aspirations, was unable to be with us due to a prior commitment, so we talked with Lockheed program manager Robert Varley from his home in Virginia. When asked for a timeline for Lockheed’s proposed pilot OTEC plant here, Rob said a 10-MW plant could up operational by 2016 – assuming relatively early funding.

Phycal Hawaii was represented by President Andrew Twomey, a returning Hawaii resident; earlier this decade he commanded a brigade of the 25th infantry Division at Schofield Barracks. His company intends to start operations with a 40-acre facility to produce 100,000 gallons of algae oil for proof-of-concept before expanding to fill a need to replace diesel and jet fuel at a competitive price.

Former Hawaii Natural Energy Institute director Pat Takahashi joined us in the studio as a “guest questioner,” and as usual, we were better informed thanks to Pat’s involvement. Monday's show will be archived at Hawaii Public Radio sometime on Tuesday, September 1.

Flip Off Switch and Replace the Power Clunker; Conservation Seen as Fastest Way To Get Off Oil

SAIC's Michael Chang and Ray Starling in HPR's studio today.

The fastest way to reduce Hawaii’s oil dependence isn’t through renewable energy development; it’s through energy conservation, according to Ray Starling and Michael Chang, managers of the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program.

They were our guests on Energy Futures today on Hawaii Public Radio, and although Starling and Chang are supporters of home-grown energy, they touted good old energy efficiency as the quickest way to make a significant difference in cutting off our oil umbilical.

Their energy efficiency program's website is still in development as Science Applications International Corporation eases into the program’s management, which began on July 1. If you missed today’s “live” broadcast, you can catch the archived version at HPR’s website starting sometime on Tuesday.

SAIC Takes On Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program

SAIC's Ray Starling will discuss Hawaii's energy efficiency program.

Next Monday’s Energy Futures show on Hawaii Public Radio (8/24) will provide an in-depth look at the new manager’s plans for the program that’s supposed to help guide Hawaii to a clean energy future.

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) assumed responsibility for the Hawaii Energy Efficiency Program from Hawaiian Electric Company on July 1. SAIC won the contract to run the efficiency program after the State Legislature determined an independent third party would be a more appropriate administrator than the electric utility.

SAIC’s Ray Starling will be our guest on Energy Futures to outline the program, which includes rebates for energy efficiency initiatives among utility customers. The show will be broadcast at 5 pm Monday August 24 on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and streamed on the Internet. We'll take your calls at 941-3689 on Oahu and 1-877-941-3689 from the neighbor islands.

If you missed our August 17th show and the interview with Dr. Stephen Schneider of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, you can listen to the archived show at HPR’s website. Schneider’s one-hour stream of consciousness on climate change and global warming is sure to fill at least one puka in your knowledge base on these important issues.

Nobel Prize Winner is Monday’s Radio Guest

Dr. Stephen Schneider shared the Nobel Prize with IPCC colleagues.

Dr. Stephen Schneider of Stanford University will discuss global warming and its implications for Hawaii in Monday's Energy Futures program. Dr. Schneider is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that, along with Al Gore, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

(The show was broadcast on Monday August 17 on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii), and the archived version can be accessed on the Internet. Dr. Schneider died on July 19, 2010.)

Callers Ask, Get Answers from Solar Energy Experts

Riley Saito (left) of SunPower and Mark Duda of Distributed Energy Partners.

Our Energy Futures program on Hawaii Public Radio is only six weeks into its run, so we don’t know whether today's 11 phone calls are anything to write (home) about. But it was the most we’ve had so far, and that undoubtedly had to do with the subject – solar energy.

Hawaii could be the solar energy capital of the country, or maybe that’s “should be” in light of our 270 days of sunshine on average, depending on where you live – windward, leeward, shadeward, sunward….

Mark Duda, president of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and a principal of Distributed Energy Partners, and Riley Saito, senior projects manager in Hawaii for SunPower Corporation, fielded the questions and gave our listeners more info than they’re likely to extract from the daily media. The program will be archived at HPR's website sometime on 8/11.

That’s our loosely held goal for the program – to provide a conversation on energy-related issues in Hawaii that encompasses the listening audience. It seemed to work today.

Next Week, No Calls

We’ve recorded a program with Dr. Stephen Schneider, member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice President Al Gore. He’s our first and only Nobel Laureate, and we can only hope for more.

Dr. Schneider will discuss global warming, climate change, implications for Hawaii and other critical issues that affect all of us – including generations yet unborn. The show will be broadcast at 5 pm Monday August 17 on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and streamed on the Internet.

Next Energy Futures Show Switches on Solar Power

Energy Futures, Hawaii Public Radio’s weekly energy-focused interview and call-in program, welcomes two leaders of the local solar energy industry on Monday – Mark Duda, president of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association, and Riley Saito, senior manager of Hawaii projects for SunPower Corporation.

They’ll answer questions and take calls from listeners about recent developments that make the solar option more affordable than ever in Hawaii. We’ll also ask Saito for an update on the state’s largest solar farm, which SunPower installed on Lanai for Castle & Cooke.

Tune in Monday from 5 to 6 pm on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and streamed on the Internet. Call the show from Oahu at 941-3689 and toll-free on the Neighbor Islands, 1-877-941-3689.

Hawaiians Have Power to Initiate Geothermal Talks

Puna Geothermal Venture's Mike Kaleikini after today's show.

Today’s Energy Futures program on Hawaii Public Radio gave even more attention to the issue of geothermal expansion in the islands to reduce the state’s dependence on imported oil. We felt the issue deserved additional exposure after last week’s show, which included strong opposition to geothermal energy by at least one of the Native Hawaiian guests on the program.

Today’s guests also are Native Hawaiians – State Senator Kalani English, who lives in Hana, Maui and is vice chair of the Energy and Environment Committee, and Puna Geothermal Venture power plant manager Michael Kaleikini.

Our headline today tries to capture what we thought was the most significant comment during the show. Senator English suggested, as he has in a video posted on YouTube, that the Native Hawaiian community has the ability to advance discussions on geothermal energy development in the islands and thereby assert a fair amount of “power” (our word) in shaping the geothermal debate.

English – and Kaleikini, of course – see geothermal energy as a gift of the Pele deity, not a defiler of the volcano goddess in Hawaiian religion. We’ll let the listener decide how this all played out when the show’s audio is archived on the HPR website sometime on August 4th.

Next Week

Our focus will shift to solar energy in the August 10th edition of Energy Futures. Guests Mark Duda of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and Riley Saito of SunPower, the company that has installed the state’s largest solar farm on Lanai, will answer listeners’ questions about recent legislation that favors solar installation from 5-6 pm on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and streamed on the Internet.

What Future Does Geothermal Energy Have in Isles?

Sen. Kalani English and Michael Kaleikini

We continue our discussion on geothermal energy on today’s Energy Futures program on Hawaii Public Radio. We heard last week that some in the Native Hawaiian community steadfastly object to its presence on the Big Island, home of one of their religion’s deities – volcano goddess Pele.

Increased geothermal production above the 30 megawatts from the existing plant will only happen after considerable dialogue within the entire community, including among Native Hawaiians who don’t share the views expressed last week.

One of them is native Hawaiian Michael Kaleikini, plant manager for Puna Geothermal Venture. He’ll be with us in the studio for today’s Energy Futures show, and he’ll be joined by State Senator Kalani English, also of part-Hawaiian ancestry. English is vice chair of the Energy and Environment Committee.

Today’s show will be “live” on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and also streamed on the Internet at 5 pm HST (11 pm EDT).