Renewable energy has been booming since 2008 when the state set a goal of making renewables 40 percent of its power mix by 2030, and government and utility incentives ignited wind power and solar installations. By the end of 2013, renewable energy had jumped from 7.5 percent to 18 percent of the state’s capacity. HB623 seeks to extend and turbo-boost that trend, calling for 30 percent renewables in 2020 and 70 percent by 2030 en route to the final leap to 100 percent.
That last jump could be difficult, says Peter Crouch, a power grid simulation expert and dean of engineering at the University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus. “Today I don’t know whether we can do it,” he says.
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According to Crouch, Hawaii’s push for 100 percent renewables is propelled by a blend of economic, social, and environmental factors. The economics lie in the state’s historic reliance on imported diesel fuel, which has left Hawaiians paying power rates roughly three times the mainland U.S. average.
Environmental factors—the abundance of renewable energy resources including wind, solar, geothermal, hydro and ocean power, plus acutely-felt threats posed by climate change such as sea level rise and wilder weather—are mutually reinforcing reasons to move quickly. Crouch says one feels far more aware of climate change and more vulnerable to it living in Hawaii—a difference that struck him as soon as he moved out from the mainland in 2006. “While I was well versed in issues like global warming, it wasn’t until I got to Hawaii that the fact that this is happening to us actually registered,” says Crouch.
For example, Crouch says, much of Hawaii’s development is near the water, and most Hawaiians are familiar with projections showing downtown Waikiki under water within a century. “One of the economic drivers of Hawaii could be submerged. That’s a very real thing,” says Crouch.
Read more at Hawaii Votes to Go 100% Renewable
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