Comment by throwawaymaths
1 year ago
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.
1 year ago
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...
> At the same time, the PUC initiated a proceeding to review progress of Castle & Cooke Resorts Lanai Wind Project, given C&C’s sale of its holdings to tech billionaire Larry Ellison about a year earlier. The docket covered “the uncertainty over Castle & Cooke Properties Inc.’s ability to develop the Lanai Wind Project” as a result of the sale, Tuesday’s filing said.
Even before opening the article I had a feeling I would see Ellison's name _somewhere_. I don't know if the review trigger was an excuse, just annoyance at it being Ellison, or what, but wild how a single person can have so much of an effect.
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
I believe underwater lines are typically not that expensive (compared to other major energy generation/transmission projects). It's actually much easier to lay a cable in water (just drop it in) that it is over land (where you either have to construct pylons or dig a trench).
5 replies →
so is having more generation capacity to overcome the lack of power interlink
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.
If I were living on an island with a volcano, I'd put "moving at a geological pace" under the "good news" category.
Easy, just move the power demand. Make it super cheap where it's naturally occurring, and a wizard, er, the market will solve it!
A huge draw for living on Oahu is the military industrial complex
Sounds so simple but in this case the volcanoes are the islands.