Tag Archives: Aina Koa Pono

Biofuel

Why Aina Koa Pono Biofuels Isn’t In Our Best Interest

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Richard Ha writes:

The Aina Koa Pono (AKP) biofuels experiment will saddle us with expensive electricity costs when there are other, better, alternatives.

  1. It costs way too much. Generating electricity from oil today costs 21 cents/kWh. AKP will charge us the 21 cents/kWh plus a surcharge until oil reaches some target price in the future. In comparison, geothermal costs approximately 10 cents/kWh, according to a 2005 GeothermEx report.
  2. It uses more energy than it generates. An independent third party should do an analysis of the whole Aina Koa Pono process, especially its Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROI). The process uses fossil fuel energy to grow its crops, then uses electricity made from fossil fuel to run its microwaves to get pyrolysis oil. That oil (which is more like vinegar) is then sent through a refinery to make it into a fuel, which will be trucked to Keahole, where it will be burned to make electricity. If the objective were to make electricity with biomass, it would be cheaper to burn the biomass, make steam, turn a turbine and make electricity that way.
  3. It is speculative. Did you know there is no industrial-scale project in the world using this process to produce electricity? We are trying to be first in the world. Very frequently, a better strategy is to copy the first in the world. It greatly reduces the risk of failure.
  4. It will tie us to a 20-year contact, during which rate payers will have a difficult time investing in other alternatives. We need to invest in the smart grid, so we can bring more solar and wind on board.
  5. Rate payers (that’s you) should not be made to be venture capitalists.
Big Island, Biofuel

Aina Koa Pono: Farmers Want To Know About Pay

Richard Ha writes:

Farmers want to know: What can Aina Koa Pono pay farmers to raise the crops they need to make pyrolysis oil?

On the mainland, large cellulosic biofuel projects wanted to pay $45/ton for feedstock. But farmers were getting much more than that – $100/ton – to grow hay. So the biofuel projects got a $45/ton subsidy, and could then offer $90/ton for the farmers' feedstock.

Last year, in a presentation, I heard Chris Eldredge of Aina Koa Pono say that they would pay $75/ton for feedstock. But farmers here in Hawai‘i make $300/ton for their hay!

I just shook my head.

From Big Island Now:

HELCO Proposes New, Cheaper Aina Koa Pono Deal

Posted on August 3rd, 2012 

by Dave Smith

Hawaii Electric Light Co. is asking state regulators to approve a new contract with Aina Koa Pono which the utility says will be cheaper for its customers than the proposal shot down last year.

Like the proposal rejected last year by the Public Utilities Commission, HELCO would buy 16 million gallons of biodiesel produced by Aina Koa Pono on former sugar cane lands in Ka`u.

However, under the latest proposal, Aina Koa Pono would also produce an additional eight million gallons of biofuel for Mansfield Oil Company for sale in Hawai`i and eventually the mainland, the company said in a statement Thursday. Read the rest

Biofuel, Food Security, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability

Kudos to the PUC!

The recent PUC decision denying a HECO/Aina Koa Pono biofuel contract was a landmark decision. Kudos to the PUC for understanding precisely what was at stake. Very impressive!!

See this Big Island Video News story about the decision.

My observations:

  • The process was not transparent, and people had a difficult time understanding the issues.
  • Cellulosic biofuels is not proven technology, so it’s high risk.
  • Filling oil tanks with long term biofuel contracts would block cheaper alternatives, like geothermal, from gaining critical mass.
  • Ratepayers would have financed the risk. And ratepayers are not venture capitalists.
  • Businesses would have seen their electricity rates go higher than they were with electricity generated by oil, making their products even less competitive to mainland competition. And food security would have suffered.
  • Social consequences would have included fewer government services, less charitable giving and more working homeless. It would have put stress on our spirit of aloha.

We can and must do better for our future generations. As Steve Jobs always said, “We need to think different!”

Not, no can, CAN!

Biofuel

HECO on County of Hawaii & Aina Koa Pono

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HECO is protesting the right of the County of Hawai‘i to participate in the start-up biofuel company Aina Koa Pono’s contract before the PUC.

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION  OF THE STATE OF HAWAI’I 

In the Matter of the Application of  HAWAII ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY, INC.  HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC.  MAUI ELECTRIC COMPANY, LIMITED 

For Approval of the Biodiesel Supply  Contract with Aina Koa Pono-Ka’u LLC and  for Approval to Establish a Biofijel Surcharge  Provision and to Include the Biodiesel Supply  Contract Costs in the Companies’ Respective  Biofuel Surcharge Provision and Energy Cost  Adjustment Clause. 

Docket No. 2011-0005  HAWAII ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY, INC.’S,  HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC.’S AND  MAUI ELECTRIC COMPANY, LIMITED’S  MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO COUNTY OF HAWAII”S  MOTION TO PARTICIPATE WITHOUT INTERVENTION…

Read the rest here

First, HECO wanted to keep the details secret. Now it’s saying that the County is late, so it should not participate.

What about the County’s responsibility to look after the best interests of the people? That should count for a lot.

HECO says that the County has not stated the specific type of expertise, knowledge or experience it holds, now how it relates to the issues on this docket.

How about common sense?

The problem with this contract is that HECO is allowing Aina Koa Pono (AKP) to pass on its costs, over and above the oil cost it replaces, to the rate payer.

Sun Fuels, the most experienced company in Hawai‘i in terms of biofuel to liquid, has closed its Hawaii company because it does not think it can be competitive with diesel. One of the main issues is the company does not feel the process is scalable in Hawai‘i.

Sun Fuels’ principal, Michael Saalfeld, a Waimea resident, has actually put this process into production via a company he owns in Germany. He knows how this process works.  There is no one in Hawai‘i more experienced.

So we have the most knowledgeable company in the state closing up shop because it knows it’s uneconomical to do biomass to liquid fuel here – while the company with no experience in the field gets a contract allowing it to pass on its costs of operation to Hawai‘i’s people.

AKP has settled on a Napier grass feedstock after proposing all kinds of others, which left people with the impression that they were like drunken sailors bouncing off the walls.

And HECO is protesting Hawai‘i County’s right to participate?

What is up here?