Hawaii Decarbonization Settlement 2045

[HiloJulie]

Not ME, as in my own analysis for chrissakes. Hannah Ritchie. I read it here!  Oops, she says it's down per capita.  That's a big difference. 

https://window.wwu.edu/how-we-know-energ...ition-here

Bill Gates says her book is "eye opening and essential".  (Not the End of the World)

I’ve always agreed that the “end of the world” is just not happening right now. That being said, doing nothing but the status quo more or less eventually insures the end of the world.

And yes, we are making progress on many fronts. A few points as stated from the link you posted:

““In 2020, around one in 25 cars sold worldwide were electric; just a few years later, in 2023, it was one in five,” wrote Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency…””

““It’s now cheaper to build onshore wind and solar power projects than new fossil fuel plants almost everywhere worldwide,” Birol wrote…””

“”For example, wind produced more electricity than natural gas in the European Union last year.””

““The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, although still largely unknown among the American public, has numerous tax credits for electric cars, heat pumps and other purchases poised to help consumers fund their own clean energy transitions.””

I remember seeing the author’s TED talk pop up on my YouTube feed, but forgot to watch it. And I’m going to get her book to read as well! Thanks for that link and info!

Quick reply to HiloJulie:

I inspect steam generator, condenser, and heat exchanger tubing for integrity.  I report any tubing flaws or anomalies, and track any historically reported flaws for growth and any additional testing. 

Sounds like an interesting job. But I take it you’re never in the “hot” part of any power plant?

To get a grasp of the airline transportation problem go to www.flightradar24.com and put Hawaii and the West Coast in the same frame.  And that goes on 24 hours a day every day.

So what would be your answer to that? Cut air travel 25% - 50% - 75%?

That is not a feasible answer. However, alternative jet fuels and improvement in jet engine technologies as is already being developed and tested, could curtail the CO2 emissions of air travel significantly, which it already has. At least as of today, most of those jets are much newer and much more efficient than that their 1960/1970 counterparts with the typical black plume of smoke pouring out of each engine as the planes take off.

I wonder then too, how many inbound/outbound jets to any of the islands in Hawaii are “private” carrying one, two, heck even 12 people? That could be solved very quickly by assessing massive landing fees. But then, I’m quite sure that might make Zuk, Oprah, Jeff, and the guy donating massive land and hospital expansions a little irked!

Aloha Julie, I am not saying that we could logistically do it today, but the technology, safety, and disposal have been effective and efficient for over 20+ years, and we sure as heck could have had it done by today.

That is why we need a hybrid approach and a reasonable plan, unlike the plan that Hawaii has adopted. People are slow to change, the energy barons need to make their money, and politics moves at the pace of lobbyists and activists, who all feed from the same bowl. 

As far as nuclear goes, while larger plants will be the backbone, I think the future lies in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), highly safe, low cost, modular, easy to deploy, scalable as needed by local power demands.

As for hydrogen, we are in agreement.  I stated we are likely 10 years out.

I think a better alternative to Hawaii’s energy needs is based in Geothermal. Which could be developed and expanded significantly and done so very economically and environmentally sound. Unfortunately, with the Hawaii laws that allow HECO to charge for electricity based upon fossil fuel costs regardless of source as well as the protest everything crowd, I don’t see it as a reality anytime soon.

And while as you say the SMR’s are an option and could work rather well, I’d say it’s probably too big of a cost, but that cost could be significantly reduced if implemented at a huge scale nationwide.

But in the end, I just think nuclear power has too much of a “boogie man” connotation to it that it just would not be practical.

And to the discussion as a whole here, I personally think spraying plumes of colored corn dust at golfing tournaments, or at Stonehenge, or throwing cans of tomato soup at the Mona Lisa in protest are just as equally ignorant as the ones denying climate change and climate science altogether, as well as the political garbage of negotiating and joining world emission reduction accords to only have the next administration walk away, ridiculing them and to then have the next administration after that having to come on bended knee and sign back up. It does nothing to solve anything and further, just cheapens the entire debate altogether.