It is my understanding HELCO will be starting to relocate the utility poles by the Palani Road/Kealaka’a Street/Palihiolo Street intersection within the next two weeks.
The HDOT is waiting for new signal loops for the Malulani Gardens/Queen Kaahumanu highway stop light before it is complete.
I found out today that construction on re-aligning Palani Road fronting Grace Church should be starting no later than the second week in November (However it is very likely construction will commence sooner than that). Bolton Inc‘s (Grace Church’s contractor) construction manager for this project had a death in the family. Thus this is why the project was delayed yet again. I’ll be getting an update early next week regarding any changes to this time line.
Road & Highway Builders LLC will be starting work next week on the next phase of the Saddle Road improvement project between m.m 11-19.
Lastly,I strongly feel that the state and HEI should re-explore laying an undersea power cable from the Big Island to the rest of the state. Hawaii County’s geothermal power would provide more consistent power generation for Honolulu than depending on wind farms on Molokai and Lanai.However I recall there was cost and environmental issues that scuttled laying a cable from the Big Island to Oahu. These same reasons may scuttle the current plans to lay a cable from Molokai & Lanai to Oahu ?
I’m curious what are the pros and cons about doing this ? If anyone can enlighten me I would appreciate it.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:29 PM
Inter-island export of geothermal-derived electricity (or other energy store such as liquid hydrogen obtained from geothermal energized processing) should remain a vision for the “ultra-long” term, e.g., 50 – 100 years. There are serious environmental, social and economic hurdles to overcome first, none which will take less than decades. For example:
1. Puna has proven to be very hot sourcing point, but perhaps too hot. The technology being used today by the well owner SEEMS to finally be generally stable, but there’s no way of the public knowing whether it’s stable for decades more or if Ormat is just holding on to get its capital investment back before systemic failure from chemical degradation of lines or major earthquake/lava inundation. I don’t think we are ready to build (and pay for, directly or indirectly) the conduit infrastructure and anti-terrorist security systems necessary for inter-island cabling, based on short term (10 years of stability) success of the existing Puna well(s). Expanding a bit more may be prudent, but that’s an entirely different proposition.
2. Successful geothermal electrical production should be proven and proven stable in other parts of the island first. Hualalai is a known candidate well field, a bit more expensive and perhaps problematic in immediate test well success; several tries may be needed over a few years to find production-worthy sites. Also, the infrastructure ties may be more expensive to install even though it would support the West Hawaii grid big-time. If this island is to export electrical energy, we must be sure our own island-wide (and regional) needs are secure first so that we don’t end up usurped by Oahu and Maui reliance during inevitable, occasional, production breakdowns. To do this, we must have diverse, large, stable energy production fields in different parts of the island. This will take decades.
3. All this power ain’t going from the production fields to the seashore over skinny lil’ 69 or 138 KV overhead lines. Think massive towers. Where will those go? If we don’t feel exploited now, we sure will then.
A more prudent course of implementing a shared/exported energy vision would be to build a diversified location production base island-wide, double that production, and then provide cable service to Maui only, if we can resolve the aesthetic issues of the overhead transmissions to/from shorelines for both islands. Unless we’ve broken the barrier to economic production of liquid hydrogen, in which case this becomes a deal for Young Brothers and Matson Navigation.