Comment by lukev
1 year ago
I was curious so I looked it up. Currently, geothermal energy provides 10-15% of Hawaii's energy needs. Given that it's highly volcanic, it seems like this could be increased.
For comparison, geothermal power accounts for over 50% of Iceland's production.
Curious if the differences are physical/geological, or some other reason.
Most electrical consumption is on an island two islands over from the volcanoes. Probably also geological: hot springs are not really a thing in Hawaii.
It does seem like it would be possible to lay a cable to transmit the power from the Big Island to Oahu. My reference for that is the plan to lay a cable to transmit power from Australia to Singapore.
It would be surprisingly difficult to do, mostly because of local politics and views on development. See https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2017/08/puc-pulls-p...
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Nobody is arguing that it is not possible
This is the first time I heard about this so I'm very curious and it turns out of course it's delayed because of talks with Indonesia lmao.
Run an underwater hvdc line like the uk does
Sounds expensive
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Easy, just move the volcanoes
Good news - the volcanoes are already moving!
Bad news - they're moving at a geological pace, and away from most of the state's population and power demand.
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Easy, just move the power demand. Make it super cheap where it's naturally occurring, and a wizard, er, the market will solve it!
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Sounds so simple but in this case the volcanoes are the islands.
The real crux behind geothermal is hot water. Hawaii is arid and the areas where geothermal does occur is on the "Big Island" and are often considered sacred by Native Hawaiians.
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