Three state agencies have big ambitions to expand geothermal power production in Hawaii, and two somewhat competing bids for more funding are at a final stage of potential legislative approval.
The initiatives focus on tapping into a relatively clean and cheap source of energy on Hawaii island, Maui and Oahu as a way to meet a state goal to derive 100% of electricity from renewable sources by 2045 and reduce Hawaii’s high cost of power largely from burning imported oil.
Officials in Gov. Josh Green’s administration say that geothermal power can be a much bigger part of achieving these goals, but that the risks and costs to identify new viable geothermal power plant sites are too high for private industry.
So, support from Hawaii taxpayers — around $80 million over the next two years, and possibly more later — is being sought.
“The state should help reduce the risk and the cost to finding (commercially viable) geothermal sites,” Dane Wicker, deputy director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said in an interview. “We don’t know where these sites are.”
The state has one existing geothermal power plant, Puna Geothermal Venture on Hawaii island, that began operations in 1993.
Developing additional geothermal power plants, which are driven by underground steam delivered via wells to produce electricity, isn’t just a cost issue. Community opposition exists over health concerns and the views of some Native Hawaiians who consider geothermal wells an affront to Madame Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaiian myth.
Thus the state has a twofold objective involving resource research and community outreach.
Power pitch
The Hawaii State Energy Office this year sought $16.5 million in each of the next two fiscal years from the Legislature to continue work it began last year using $5 million provided by Green from a federal coronavirus recovery fund.
HSEO is working with the University of Hawaii Groundwater and Geothermal Resource Center to zero in on one test well site on Hawaii island outside of Puna and to understand community views.
Mark Glick, HSEO director, estimates that current funding could produce the test well in the first quarter of next year.
If the agency’s request for $33 million more is granted, HSEO intends to do similar work elsewhere on Hawaii island outside Puna, on Maui and even on Oahu, where drilling deep enough could reach geothermal resources.
Glick said the push stems from a realization that not enough suitable land exists to attain renewable energy goals for electricity and transportation fuel using solar, wind and biofuel crop projects.
According to UH, Puna Geothermal occupies 80% less land and produces five times more electricity than one of the state’s biggest solar farms. Geothermal energy also can be used to make hydrogen and ammonia fuels.
“For us it seems to make a lot of sense to better understand that resource to see how far it can go,” Glick said. “So far, that just has been a discussion, and sort of an assertion, that it has great potential. But we think it needs to be transformed into something extremely tangible and understandable.”
Glick figures it makes sense for the state to invest $50 million to $60 million to acutely understand Hawaii’s geothermal energy capabilities and prompt private industry to proceed with power plant development.
“There’s just not confidence of where to go, and also where to go that would be acceptable to the public,” he said.
House Bill 1020 was introduced on behalf of the governor to fund HSEO’s goal.
The bill passed the House in February without a specified appropriation. On April 4, the Senate passed an amended version that channels the unspecified sum to DBEDT instead of HSEO. That leaves House and Senate negotiators to possibly hash out differences before the legislative session ends May 2.
‘Parallel’ plan
A separate funding request is being driven by DBEDT and private consultants in partnership with UH and another state agency, the Hawaii Technology Development Corp.
Last year, the Legislature appropriated $6 million to DBEDT to begin geothermal site research and public outreach on Hawaii island in an effort to attract private-sector development of a 50- to 100-megawatt power plant.
Green released only $2.8 million, which allowed the project led by Waika Consulting to craft a long-term development plan and begin community engagement.
This year, DBEDT seeks $6 million via Senate Bill 1269 to allow the team and a contractor selected through competitive bidding to identify four to eight potential sites and do localized community outreach.
Two additional phases also are envisioned to cut the number of potential sites by half using noninvasive subsurface testing, and then drill one to three test wells.
Wicker estimated a total of $20 million will be needed over five years to complete all four phases. “The ultimate goal here is to get to commercial viability,” he said.
SB 1269 isn’t a Green administration bill but is endorsed by DBEDT and promoted by Waika officials who have opposed the governor’s bill for HSEO funding.
Ryan Matsumoto, president of Waika, strongly urged lawmakers in written testimony to support SB 1269 in place of HB 1020.
Waika to date has received about half of last year’s $2.8 million appropriation to DBEDT. According to a preliminary budget for the work involving Waika, UH and HTDC, relatively little or no work is being done by UH or HTDC.
The biggest budget item is nearly $1 million directed to community outreach that includes meetings, community advocacy and paying two cultural advisers. Another $650,000 is to produce a development plan. Budgeted sums for consultants include $150,000 for Honua Group LLC managed by Roberta Cabral, who founded the parent company of Waika, $150,000 for Luca Ltd. and $100,000 for Matsumoto.
More than a decade ago, an affiliate of Waika, Huena Power, unsuccessfully tried to develop a maximum 50-megawatt geothermal power plant on Hawaii island in response to a 2013 Hawaiian Electric request for proposals.
Different drafts of SB 1269 have passed the Senate and House to set the bill up for Senate-House negotiations on a mutually agreeable version.
Third effort
Another state agency, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, also sought legislative funding this year for geothermal energy exploration on Hawaii island.
DHHL initially received $500,000 from the Legislature in 2022 to begin such work and is considering three potential sites on land it owns in Kawaiahae, South Point and Humuula on Mauna Kea, which is next to an Army training range and is the agency’s preferred site.
Senate Bill 151 sought $20 million in each of the next two fiscal years for DHHL to carry out the work in collaboration with HSEO and UH, but the measure did not advance beyond an initial Senate committee approval in February.
A similar bill seeking only $20 million, House Bill 1307, passed the House but wasn’t taken up in the Senate after about 60 individuals opposed the bill in written testimony largely over cultural, health and other concerns.
DHHL in written testimony said it’s also pursuing federal funding, and estimated that up to $200 million will be needed to identify and position one or more sites for commercial development.
Groundbreaking past
Hawaii has a long, contentious and groundbreaking history with geothermal power.
Early research into producing electricity from geothermal energy in the state included infrared mapping in the early 1970s focused on the East Rift Zone of Kilauea, Hawaii’s most active volcano. That effort was funded by Hawaii County and was followed by more than $10 million in additional investments from the county, state and federal governments.
In 1976, UH developed a 6,450-foot-deep experimental well reaching a reservoir of 676-degree water that produced enough steam to make electricity for an estimated 2,000 homes.
The demonstration well was used to develop a 3-megawatt power plant at Pohoiki in Puna that began producing electricity in 1981, making Hawaii the second state to develop a geothermal power plant. The Geysers in Northern California was the first.
Multiple commercial geothermal power plants were anticipated to follow, including a proposed 500-megawatt plant to deliver electricity to other islands via undersea cable.
Only one emerged, Puna Geothermal, a 38-megawatt plant that cost $130 million. It began operating in 1993, after the small demonstration plant shut down, but didn’t reduce electricity rates for Hawaii island residents until 2023 because the plant’s owner was paid the same price for power produced from oil under its original contract.
Over many decades during geothermal power research and power production in Puna, strong pushback from community members included public protests and litigation. Much of the opposition was from Pohoiki residents who complained about intermittent releases of smelly and toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, ear-splitting well blowouts and other negative impacts including occasional evacuations.
One area resident, Robert Petricci, was arrested at least eight times before Puna Geothermal began operating. “We demand a halt to geothermal development now, before we are hurt or forced out of our homes,” he said, according to a 1991 Honolulu Advertiser article.
Organizations that opposed geothermal power included the Pele Defense Fund and Big Island Rainforest Action Group. “We cannot compromise our deity,” said Emmett Aluli, a Pele Defense Fund leader, according to a 1990 Honolulu Star-Bulletin article.
In March, Terri Napeahi, a Pele Defense Fund representative, told the state House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that drilling for geothermal resources would constitute desecration and prompt litigation.
Tara Rojas told the same committee that Puna residents have been “gassed” by toxic air. “Please do not fast-track this,” she said.
Pua Case, a leader in protests that indefinitely blocked development of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea in 2019 over cultural objections, told the committee in written testimony that more study about the impacts of geothermal development on the land, water and people of Puna are needed before more development.
Building support
Proponents of expanded geothermal energy development in Hawaii claim that harmful health consequences haven’t been demonstrated, and that industry technology has greatly improved with regard to emissions issues since Puna Geothermal was established.
Ulupono Initiative, a socially minded investment firm, said it conducted a survey of Hawaii island residents in 2023 that found 55% of respondents support geothermal energy production compared with 21% opposed and 24% being neutral.
Henry Curtis, executive director of the environmental group Life of the Land, told lawmakers that more geothermal power is needed in Hawaii but that it shouldn’t be where communities can be negatively impacted.
The current version of the DBEDT-backed bill would prohibit geothermal resource exploration within an unspecified distance from residential areas.
Hawaiian Electric, the state-regulated utility serving Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island, supports the effort to meet state renewable energy and electricity cost-reduction goals with more geothermal energy.
The utility plans to issue a draft request for long-term renewable energy project proposals later this year, which would provide opportunities for geothermal development.
