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.