Most Oil Dependent State to Expand Renewable Electricity Capacity
Hawaii, the most oil dependent state in the nation, is the site of USG efforts to invest and develop solar power and biofuel capacities, reports the Honolulu Advertiser. Earlier this week, Marine Corps Base Hawaii played host to about 410 industry, military, and government officials attending two separate conferences on the renewable sources of energy.
The biofuel undertaking is part of an agreement reached between the Navy and Department of Agriculture in January. Deputy Secretary of the USDA, Kathleen Merrigan referred to it as a “historic day;” the state is 90 percent dependent on foreign oil imports. The Department of Energy will contribute $2 million this year and the Office of Naval Research has committed to $2 million annually for the production of biofuels and renewable for naval use.
According to Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and the environment, the collaboration
will allow us to model what can be done, what crops can be grown in Hawai’i, and show how we can use them to help our nation get off fossil fuels.
For the production of solar power, $500 million will be invested over the course of approximately 30 years. There are, of course, some complications with connecting the solar energy to Hawaii’s electricity grid. Studies will be completed, however, as efforts to increase Hawaii’s current solar power capacity are undertaken. In support of the project, one attendee, vice president of market development for Solar Power Partners Arthur Athas said,
A 56-megawatt solicitation — that’s huge… It places Hawai’i in the forefront of renewables in the United States.
