Cooking with Bagasse

By Sara Medina

Hawaii aims for energy self-sufficiency in the 21st century

The Arab oil embargo of 1973-74 gave Hawaii a frightening lesson in the vulnerability of its energy lifelines: the islands rely almost entirely on outside oil for fuel. Last year they used more than 45 million bbl., or $1.5 billion worth, nearly two-thirds of it from foreign sources. "Hawaii is more dependent on imported oil than any other state," says Kent Keith, deputy director of Hawaii's department of planning and economic development. But Keith points out: "Our potential for energy self-sufficiency may also be greater than that of any other state." In the past ten years Hawaii has channeled an astonishing $65 million into researching and developing such alternative energy sources as solar, wind and geothermal power, and making them commercially competitive with oil. A 1981 study by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy predicted that by the year 2005, the state could be producing 90% of its electricity through renewable resources that are also abundant, environmentally benign and safe from foreign political vicissitudes.

Although lower oil prices resulting from the present petroglut, combined with the current recession and the Reagan Administration's slashing of energy-research funds, have slowed Hawaii's ambitious plans, these projects have not been stopped. Among them:

> Biomass, or organic material from plants and garbage, has provided the most encouraging results thus far. The burning of bagasse, the brownish fibrous residue from sugar cane, began in the early 1970s when the Environmental Protection Agency ordered a halt to the dumping of 2.7 million tons of cane waste per year into the Pacific Ocean. With a little help from the Government and a capital investment of some $25 million, planters discovered that a ton of bagasse produces the equivalent electricity of 1 bbl. of oil. Bagasse now provides 7% of Hawaii's electricity needs. But the state is not relying entirely on the depressed sugar industry for biomass. It is now considering pineapple waste and macadamia nut shells as energy sources. Tree farms have been planted for future fuel, and there is promise in a treelike legume called Haole Koa now being cultivated in Kauai, which can be harvested in four years and will produce in one acre the energy equivalent of 20 bbl. of oil.

> Geothermal power is readily available on Hawaii, the youngest and most volcanically active of the islands. In 1976 drillers dug the world's hottest hole, with bottom temperatures of 676DEG F, on the eastern slopes of Kilauea volcano. Last year the well came on line with a $14 million, 3-megawatt* power plant, only the second such geothermal facility in the U.S. Estimates of the island's geothermal potential range up to 3,000 megawatts, nearly twice the whole state's present electric-power consumption. The further development of new geothermal sources would be spurred if engineers could design a cable to span the 26-mile, 7,000-ft.-deep Alenuihaha Channel between Hawaii and the other islands to permit the export of electricity.

> Hydropower is Hawaii's oldest alternative energy source, dating from the turn of the century. But hydropower produces only 1.5% of the state's electricity today, and it has a limited future because there are few free-flowing streams of any size or force and little space for storage reservoirs.

> Wind power remains a tantalizing possibility. The northeast trade winds are consistent and often strong, and seven small windmills have been installed on ranches and in small businesses. Long-range generating capacity is estimated at 400 megawatts, or up to 25% of the state's requirements. But no windmill is now cost competitive with oil. An 80-megawatt facility on Oahu, scheduled for completion in 1984, currently projects a loss of 7-c- on every kilowatt-hour.

> Solar energy seems an obvious answer to Hawaii's problems. Already there are an estimated 20,000 solar hot-water units statewide, saving as much as $6 million a year. On Kauai, G.N. Wilcox Hospital has installed a photovoltaic system that nils 4% of its electrical and 40% of its hot-water needs. But such systems are expensive and generate electricity only in daylight hours. Even the sun has not cooperated this year: thanks partly to dust clouds from Mexico's El Chichon volcano, Hawaii has had the lowest level of direct solar radiation in 52 years.

> Ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, is decades away from full development, but one OTEC scientist feels that it may one day deliver as much energy from Hawaiian waters alone as the entire U.S. now consumes. OTEC utilizes warm surface waters to heat pressurized ammonia, which vaporizes, expands and propels a power turbine. Then the gaseous ammonia is cooled by subsurface waters, converted back to a liquid and repeats the process all over again. In 1979 a floating mini-OTEC plant generated a net 15 kilowatts per hour, making it the first such plant to produce more energy than it consumes. But a larger plant built in 1981 off Kailuakona, on Hawaii, was a $50 million failure: corrosion of the heat-exchange pipes by sea water and fouling by small marine plants and bacteria rendered the system useless in a matter of days. New pipe materials are being tested, and the state, undaunted, has ordered designs for four 10-megawatt OTEC plants.

However the new technologies develop, the future of alternative energy in Hawaii is at a crucial stage. It is likely to be determined less by the new discoveries of scientists and engineers than by the accounting decisions of bankers and businessmen who support such ventures. Governor George Ariyoshi believes that Hawaii has already passed the point of no return. "We have the momentum going in our state," he says. "I don't want us to lose it." A new shock from the oil sheiks of the Middle East may also change the terms of alternative energy's economic equation. Says John Shupe of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute: "We have gone through an oil glut. The next shoe that is dropped in the Middle East can put the U.S. back in a worse position than we were in 1973. The country is no better prepared." Hawaii has made a strenuous effort to see that next time it, at least, will be better prepared.

-- By Sara Medina.

Reported by Dick Thompson/Kona

* A measure of power of 1 million watts, equal to 1 million volts driving 1 million amperes of current, or enough to meet the energy needs of 500 households.

With reporting by Dick Thompson

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.