We listened with fascination yesterday to NPR’s report on oilman T. Boone Pickens and his plan to develop the world’s largest windfarm in the Texas panhandle – 4,000 megawatts of clean juice.
Now comes friend Bob Smith – recently of Hawaii but returning to his Texas home next week – with the online link to the Pickens Plan. We encourage clicking on it for some renewable energy inspiration.
First, you have to hand it to Mr. Pickens; he looks as cool and comfortable giving a seminar on the downside of fossil fuel use as Al Gore. This 80-year-old legend in his own time is moving too fast to let any moss grow, and on the Internet at that.
Next, hooray for this oilman's clear declaration on what importing petroleum is doing to our country. When he speaks, industries listen, and he’s speaking now about developing America’s abundant wind energy potential in the heartland.
Thinking Outside the Continent
Now, all we need to do is “ride the horse the direction it’s going,” as someone we know used to say. Mr. Pickens is already riding hard toward a renewable energy future, so here’s our hope:
T. Boone Pickens will discover that Hawaii is 92 percent dependent on imported oil for our energy, including a whopping 77 percent for the state’s electricity generation. Wind, solar, geothermal, coal and a smidgen of hydro power make up the rest of our power generation, but oil is the big contributor.
Hawaii is arguably closer to becoming 100-percent fossil fuel free among the states for one reason – the tropical ocean in which this fleet of islands is anchored. If Mr. Pickens were to write another renewable energy equation using ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) power out here in Hawaii instead of wind, we could be on our way to eliminating fossil fuel use in the Aloha State.
OK, not in this decade or the next, but by 2030 we could be getting close, maybe even surpassing the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative goal to be 70 percent reliant on renewable energy by then.
What’s with the Waco Connection?
We’re curious why this blog has been visited dozens of times in recent days by computers using the Baylor.edu domain. We’re happy you’re here and invite you to clue us in on this sudden interest in Hawaii Energy Options. Please leave a Comment below or send an email to doug@commaaina.com. Mahalo.
3 comments:
There is a public Forum for discussions about Pickens plan :
www.pickensenergyplan.com
Cheers.
Aloha,Doug!
We also want to note that clean energy with OTEC also leaves clean air. I topic near and dear to both of us.
Looks like I may need to get in touch with T. Boone Pickens myself. My family has had a ranch in the wind belt in Wheelter County Texas for almost one hundred years. In addition, my brother Brian Vick is a long-time wind researcher mostly recently with USDA's Bushland TX research station. He sees Cully Judd and Warren Bollmeir at all the AWEA functions and has for years. We've been up to the wind farm on Kahua Ranch on numerous occasions.
Charlotte
Charlotte, what say YOU become the conduit to Mr. Picken!. You have wind energy just waiting to be tapped on your panhandle ranch, and you have have in-depth knowledge and experience with OTEC going back a long ways. The possibilities are tangible, and as we discussed by telephone, there are other players in the renewable energy field who should meet Mr. Pickens and talk about those possibilities.
Hawaii as the first state to be completely free of imported oil. Let's start a lottery on the date that will become a reality!
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