Big Island Video News has a video up on Richard Ha:
The sustainably minded Richard Ha of Pepeekeo’s Hamakua Springs Country Farm seeks to have no resource go to waste. He has even found a future use for the old sugar plantation flume on his property.
The Wai‘a‘ama flume was a part of the old Pepeekeo mill and was used to transport harvested cane. According to Ha’s blog, for many years before 1935 the hydraulic head of mountain ground water (spring water) drove a hydroelectric plant that supplied all of the mill’s needs and also supplied power for housing.
Plans to restore the flume to a power generating resource once again are underway at the farm. A new hydroelectric generator will use the flume to generate enough electricity to supply the entire farming operation, and Ha believes there will still be enough left over to allow the farm’s workers workers to plug in their future electric hybrids as an extra employment benefit.
It’s part of a 5-part series; the other Hamakua Springs videos are listed at the bottom of the page.