Sunday, December 7, 2008

Same Time, Same Place – Governor’s Office Sets Another ‘Major Clean Energy Announcement’

Renewable energy advocates here on Oahu are learning to keep their Tuesday calendars free at 1:30. That’s becoming the designated announcement hour by the Governor’s office – for two weeks running, at least.

This week’s “major clean energy announcement” involves Phoenix Motorcars, which is taking reservations at its website for motorists who want “to be among the first to buy a real-world electric vehicle….” (The company's SUV is shown above.)

Last Tuesday at 1:30, the office hosted Better Place’s announcement for a statewide billion-dollar network of electric charging stations. It will be interesting to learn about Hawaiian Electric Company’s involvement with Phoenix, if any.

We’re optimistically blocking out the 1:30 hour on Tuesdays for the foreseeable future. Now, if the people who run the State Capitol would only block out more stalls for the public...(what a concept!)... citizens might actually be able to park their new electric cars there.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There seems to have been quite a few such new-energy announcements from Hawaii recently. Sounds like this is for real. Finally?

Anonymous said...

Also on Tuesday, there will be a gathering of all the major hotels in Waikiki, together with representatives of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the US Dept of Energy's Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI -- see DOE website), to discuss energy conservation and efficiency in Hawaii's resorts and hotels. NREL and CBI will present some concepts, ideas and proposals on higher penetration of EE. Besides broader initiatives such as EVs, we need to start focusing on sectors. See what the military bases are doing! Maybe, Doug, OTEC baseload powering Waikiki?

Doug Carlson said...

Thanks for the information, Ted -- and thanks for stopping by. OTEC for Waikiki? Sounds like a plan. If I owned a hotel, where would I sign?!