USA, Hawai'i, Opinion:

The Big Island Is Throwing Away Geothermal Electricity (Huffington Post)

Here on the Big Island, we throw away at least seven MW of electricity per day. It's geothermal energy tapped at night, when people are sleeping and so the utility requires less electricity.

That's enough to power 4,550 homes or more.

Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO) doesn't say that the 7 MW of electricity is "thrown away." They call it "curtailed" -- but "curtailed" means it goes unused. It's wasted. Thrown away.

I am a founding member of the Big Island Community Coalition, a group dedicated to making Big Island electricity rates the lowest in the state. We want to find a way to utilize this "thrown away" resource that is already being tapped, and which could be used to greatly benefit the people of the Big Island.

What if we could "wheel" this geothermal energy out of Puna and use it strategically?

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