USA Today reported on the FIT in Hawaii on 4-18.09.
FIT is the law that made
Germany's renewable energy industry the world's biggest. Germany gained 250,000 jobs in the last eight years and built four times the clean energy installations that Hawaii needs. 38 other countries have a FIT law now. It powerful
law, often misunderstood. This website explains the law and what it would mean for Hawaii, if it was implemented here.
By bringing FIT to Hawaii, we can create the
"Hawaii Miracle", with a massive influx of investments and jobs and clean energy and move quickly away from our dependency on oil.
FIT means "feed-in tariff", but a better name would be "renewable energy payments". By allowing anyone to become an electricity producer and feeding it into the grid at a profitable rate, FIT encourages massive developments of renewable energy.
Hawaiian Electric (who owns Maui Electric) is a private company regulated by the government through the Public Utilities Commission, the PUC. Governor Linda Lingle asked the PUC to implement a FIT in Hawaii. This process is now underway and will lead to a decision in July 2009.
If the PUC implements a full FIT law as in Germany, we will see massive amounts of investment in renewable energy. However, Hawaiian Electric has a history of keeping renewable energy at the sidelines.
Watch a 5-minute video by the World Future Council
Energy policy defines energy future In a highly controlled market, such as utilities, the outcome is more shaped shaped by policies than by business decisions, inventions, common sense or political will.
Follow the leader Germany has become the leader in both wind and solar solutions. In 2007 the electricity generation through wind was 39.5 billion kWh and solar 3.5 billion kWh (Hawaii used a total of 10.1 billion kWh). This was achieved through a simple law that created a new energy policy. Spain followed Germany's example last year and experienced a rush in solar construction. At the present time, 38 countries have a FIT law, proving that it can work everywhere even in China and Mauritius. However, because the law's impact is not easily understood, many other countries tried other policies which do not work.
Wind and sun are cheaper than oil In Hawaii we bring in oil from the Middle East, refine it and burn it for electricity. But wind and sun are right here in abundant quantities and this is one place where the oil that gets burned costs more than the financing costs for renewable energies. Hawaii is giving $8 billion to oil producers and could be self-sufficient with a $16 billion investment in renewable power sources. This year Hawaii uses all it's income from US tourists to pay for oil.
Hawaii needs massive change Every year the price of oil goes up. The world has neglected renewable energy for 30 years and the rate payers are paying the price. We read now about the possibility of massive wind farms on all islands as well as huge solar projects, OTEC and seawater cooling. All these renewable projects add up to 1,000 MWp, which is only 20% of our electricity. And less if we factor in the coming shift to electric cars. We need five times that much, and not in 20 years. That is massive change and it will create a massive inflow of capital, thousands of jobs, energy security and the admiration of the world. Slowing down that change will only cost us more for electricity, send our dollars into the middle east and we will lose the opportunity for an easy transition that we have now.
KWh, not KW Solar and wind installations are dependent on the flow of natural energies. A sunny area in Hawaii has an average of 5.3 hours of full sun energy. A excellent wind area like Maui's Kaheawa has good wind 49% of the time. That means that a 100 MW solar facility has up to 22 MW average productivity and a 100 MW wind farm has up to 49 MW average productivity. A 100 MW oil burning generator has 100 MW average productivity. So if we talk of replacing Hawaii's 1,600 MW oil burning generators with wind and solar, we must be talking about 3,000 - 5,000 MW of wind and sun. It's better to look at the kWh produced than the KW peak power installed.
The FIT law benefits everyone Germany's groundbreaking law is not a subsidy. No tax dollars are used to bring in renewable energy. Every citizen pays about 1 dollar a month extra which has created an industry that will soon surpass car manufacturing as the number one industry. The electric companies enjoy very healthy profits. In Hawaii there will not even be a $1 cost to rate payers, since we have more than double the sun that cloudy Germany has. In the adaptation to Hawaii, the FIT will encourage the electric utilities to add renewables and pay them a fair price to balance out their fluctuating energies. Both of these incentives are not in place now, which explains the slow pace of wind and solar integration.
The unique chance Hawaii has right now Tens of billions of dollars are available at this moment to pay for Hawaii's new energy infrastructure. Within a few years we could go from expensive oil dependency to a vibrant new energy economy. All this investment can be freed up with the right energy policy. Hawaii is the only state in the union that has the sunshine and the high energy costs to make the FIT law work right away. With the coming recession and international competition for solar resources, supplies in money, solar panels and wind turbines may dry up in the next years. If we act now, we have a golden opportunity.
Are there real problems? Building in Hawaii, even if it is renewable energy that benefits everyone, has to be in accordance with the beauty and nature of the island. We have to be inventive and forward thinking in our way to embed solar farms and windmills in a way that adds to our daily lives. Bringing massive amounts of variable energy from changing winds and sun into the grid presents challenges to grid stability. But instead of using this as an argument to keep renewables away, let's treat it as what it is - an exciting engineering challenge. Here in Hawaii we can find solutions that will benefit the entire world and we can make money by exporting that technology.
Let's recap Sun and wind are cheaper in Hawaii than our current oil based system. Their costs also don't go up and the money gets invested here, creating jobs. We will be more secure than with our 2 week oil supply and fight global warming. The investors are waiting at the door and will shoulder the risk. By implementing FIT in the right way, we will open the door for them.