07-10-2026, 02:45 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-10-2026, 02:46 PM by Durian Fiend.)
(07-10-2026, 04:14 AM)HereOnThePrimalEdge Wrote: On June 29, economist Michael Roberts published a report titled “Hawaiʻi’s Electricity Future” on the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s website. With his report, Roberts waded into perhaps the state’s largest ongoing debate around energy: whether Oʻahu can lower its electricity costs by burning natural gas instead of oil for power.
Roberts’ paper contended that Oʻahu doesn’t need a new natural gas plant, nor does it need any other kind of new fuel-based generation for that matter. Instead, Roberts concluded that investments in utility-scale solar are Oʻahu’s most cost-effective option.
The report was wrong.
Why?
He used AI to research the numbers.
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-...me-from-ai
And the error discovered in calculating solar plus storage contract costs doesn't really touch on Green's primary criticism, the one that has come to mind for me:
"...Green called the report “baloney” on KHON2, critiquing its assumptions about the availability of land for solar development..."