12-29-2007, 08:42 PM
Statewide one third of all oil consumed goes to power the electrical grid, I'm not sure what the specifics are for this island, although we are supposed to have a higher percentage of alternative energy propagation (primarily geothermal with some wind and a few solar systems). Even though our alternative energy is higher overall our entire energy use is probably a lot less than Oahu so even if we entirely generated all of our electricity with alternative methods, I don't know how much overall oil usage that would save. One third of oil use goes to aviation use and the remaining third goes for all other uses - gasoline, fuel oil, diesel, etc.
There is a company in California, Nanosolar, who is making some sort of new solar panels by "printing" them instead of assembling them so they should be a lot less expensive per kilowatt hour than the existing solar panel technology. Hopefully in several years the panels will be available so more folks will go off the grid.
The best thing each of us can do to minimize the use of oil in our state is to get off the electric grid and produce our own power by photovoltaic & wind. Save a lot of money, too!
There is a company in California, Nanosolar, who is making some sort of new solar panels by "printing" them instead of assembling them so they should be a lot less expensive per kilowatt hour than the existing solar panel technology. Hopefully in several years the panels will be available so more folks will go off the grid.
The best thing each of us can do to minimize the use of oil in our state is to get off the electric grid and produce our own power by photovoltaic & wind. Save a lot of money, too!
Kurt Wilson