What's happening at PGV
Tuesday September 1, 2009
Hawai‘i Island, PGV lead the way in ground-breaking industries.
Just weeks ago, the Big Island was blessed with the news that the Thirty Meter Telescope would be located here—a victory for all Hawai‘i Island businesses, organizations and individuals that supported this international venture.
Hawai‘i Island’s long-term success will depend on continuing the broad-based community dialogue that brought us this far. Renewable energy is another example.
Earlier, Puna Geothermal Venture plant manager Michael Kaleikini was part of an extraordinary dialogue at UH-Manoa’s Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Four Native Hawaiians and several other contributors spoke frankly about renewable energy’s future in Hawai‘i.
The issue of Native Hawaiian rights and cultural practices runs through every discussion about expanding the state’s use of renewable energy, Kaleikini said, much as it did with the TMT. Kaleikini along with execs in wind and solar and a supporter of the Pele Defense Fund—all work in renewable energy fields.
Kaleikini reminded participants that in the 1880s, it was Hawaii’s King David Kalakaua who first looked at how we could harness volcanic heat to generate electricity—100 years before the king’s vision came to be.
Today at PGV, community relations are good and plant produces 30 MW of clean, renewable power, Kaleikini said. “We look at geothermal energy as a gift—to be used wisely and to decrease our dependency on oil,” he said.