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If you experienced HECO’s “rolling blackouts” on Jan. 8, you experienced an early example of the impact of Hawaii’s “net-zero” goal. Hawaiian Electric (HECO) did experience failure of its Waiau Power Plant and indicated that it caused the need for the blackouts. Yet, it minimized another cause — the move to “green energy.”
The more we eliminate fossil fuel plants in favor of solar, wind, etc., the more we make ourselves vulnerable to blackouts. When green sources can’t supply necessary energy, we have to rely on generators that use fossil fuels. As a result, going into the future, we will also need fossil fuel generation to back up the green sources.
To maintain both redundant types of generation to provide reliable electricity is very expensive and inefficient. We need our Legislature and HECO to reconsider their goals to move Hawaii completely away from the use of fossil fuels.
John Kim
Manoa
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