Things happen.

When the lights went out nearly island-wide a couple weeks ago, people who were in a position to know said that it was due to a recurring problem at Keahole. That’s the site of the big, new, HELCO-owned oil-fired generator.

These windmill pictures below show that all was not perfect in the early days of the windmill, either.

Like everything else, geothermal has also had some production glitches.

Jim Kauahikaua, Hawaii Volcano’s National Park-Scientist in charge, gave a presentation the other day at the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park’s “After Dark in the Park” program. It was about Hualalai, the third most active volcano on the Big Island.

Someone asked how long the Big Island would be over the hotspot and Jim said maybe 500,000 to a million years.

For the last 150 years, the world has been powering modern society using cheap oil. Within 20 years, the oil-exporting nations will no longer export. They will instead use the oil for their own people.

Last week, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, said they would cease operations in terms of exploring for oil. He wants to save it for future generations, and that sounds like a rational decision. It should not surprise us when other exporting nations do the same.

What should we do?