Comment on Donald Trump, Champion of Renewable Energy
Kind_to_Everyone@slrpnk.net 2 days agoThere isn’t a conspiracy. It’s simply that most of the older islands have cooled and the studies necessary to find the right conditions are incredibly expensive. The Big Island is where the opportunity is, and they are expanding the existing plant as part of the carbon-free 2045 plan. The state is also funding exploration on Maui.
I love the idea of geothermal, but the reality is difficult. You need to drill to find the right conditions. There’s also the H2S emissions. Solar and wind resources are much easier to confirm and build.
The problem, as I often say, is that just because something demos well and it's easier to buy something doesn't mean it's going to be good in production. If you have a solar farm but you need to build a coal plant large enough to power the island anyway because you don't have dispatchable power, then you end up with Australia, California, or Ontario, where "the cheapest power" causes electricity costs to rise. Meanwhile, In places like Norway, Quebec, and iceland, those renewables actually drove down electricity costs because the marginal cost of energy is very low and you don't need to double up your infrastructure even if it's expensive and difficult to build up-front.
Kind_to_Everyone@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
Markets dislike the uncertainty of searching for the right geothermal conditions. Battery storage is just cheaper and certain. You also can’t gloss over the hydrogen sulfide pollution. Geothermal is not truly clean.
Maui and Kauai have small populations and are easy for wind +solar + storage. The Big Island has geothermal, but it is only going to supply 15% of the energy mix because of the pollution. They have the room for renewables for 200k people. Oahu is the challenge. It’s populous, dense, and needs approximately 1.8 GW. This is why biofuels are the current strategy.