The Houston-based company Wheelabrator recently gave a presentation about its “Waste-to-Energy” facilities to representatives of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, Japanese Chamber, Portuguese Chamber and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board.
By my calculations, 86,000 tons/year of trash replaces 86,000 barrels of oil at $100/barrel. (86,000 divided by 365 equals 235 tons/day.) This equates to $8.6 million in oil cost savings per year, and even more as oil prices rise. And we all know that they will.
Wheelabrator convinced me that it has a technology that is proven. The most important thing is that their contract has several instances along the way where the County could terminate the contract at no cost. It has an escape clause so we would not be stuck with a bad project.
The objective of pushing this forward is to enable a quote from HELCO so we can get more information. There is no risk to moving forward at this point.
There are new, “miracle” proposals out there that are said to be faster and cheaper, but we have found over the years that it’s asking for trouble to buy first generation products. You end up being the guinea pig. Believe me, this is the voice of experience speaking!
You did hear about the recent deception in Connecticut didn’t you?
http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5463
http://hunterbishop.com/journal/2008/4/12/but-dont-the-radio-ads-sound-swell.html
Howzit Damon:
Thanks for the heads up. I just wrote to the reporter to ask if he had any advise for us.
There are safety valves in the contract so that we can get out at various points.
I think that we need to get to the point where we know what HELCO will pay for the electricity. Then we will have a better picture of what the payback is likely to be.
Richard
Aloha Richard,
Please reconsider your ideas about the proposed incinerator.
Replace oil? A charade.
Less than half the same amount money invested in PV Solar will produce that much electricity. And, lots of what is produced by WTE will be lost in transmission (aka ‘line losses’) over the long distance from Hilo to Kona/Kohala — because, more kwh are now produced on the East side than can be used and less on the West side than needed.
Replace Hilo landfill?
This can be done by NOT putting so much stuff in it. While so-called ‘waste-to-energy’ facilities have been closing and becoming obsolete in the USA for the past decade, materials markets and good-old common-sense innovation have increased the use of recycling, composting, and re-using.
There is lots more. I can send it to anyone who wants it.
I thought ‘waste-to-energy’ sounded so benign and simple until I began researching it two years ago.
The bottom line: Wheelabrator has a product to sell and they will say whatever it takes to do so. Because no new plants have been built in the USA for more than 10 years, and they are losing ‘market share’ (getting a diminishing proportion of ‘municipal solid waste’ generated) and their existing plants are getting old and closing, they are desperate.
Wheelabrator’s history, and that of their parent company, WMI, are riddled with legal problems — criminal and civil — as well as regulatory violations, and controversy.
Our community can and must do better.
James Weatherford
Keaau
Aloha Richard,
Please reconsider your ideas about the proposed incinerator.
Replace oil? A charade.
Less than half the same amount money invested in PV Solar will produce that much electricity. And, lots of what is produced by WTE will be lost in transmission (aka ‘line losses’) over the long distance from Hilo to Kona/Kohala — because, more kwh are now produced on the East side than can be used and less on the West side than needed.
Replace Hilo landfill?
This can be done by NOT putting so much stuff in it. While so-called ‘waste-to-energy’ facilities have been closing and becoming obsolete in the USA for the past decade, materials markets and good-old common-sense innovation have increased the use of recycling, composting, and re-using.
There is lots more. I can send it to anyone who wants it.
I thought ‘waste-to-energy’ sounded so benign and simple until I began researching it two years ago.
The bottom line: Wheelabrator has a product to sell and they will say whatever it takes to do so. Because no new plants have been built in the USA for more than 10 years, and they are losing ‘market share’ (getting a diminishing proportion of ‘municipal solid waste’ generated) and their existing plants are getting old and closing, they are desperate.
Wheelabrator’s history, and that of their parent company, WMI, are riddled with legal problems — criminal and civil — as well as regulatory violations, and controversy.
Our community can and must do better.
James Weatherford
Keaau
Aloha James:
Thanks for your comments. I have not made up my mind about a solution to the east side landfill problem.
We do need a contract with HELCO to assess the financial aspects and to compare alternatives. Since the county can still back out after that– it is a safe step to take.
I would appreciate any information that you can share with me about this subject. Mahalo
Richard