HILO — Mayor Billy Kenoi is leading a 14-member delegation to a sister city the Philippines later this month for a cost of $30,000 to the county.
HILO — Mayor Billy Kenoi is leading a 14-member delegation to a sister city the Philippines later this month for a cost of $30,000 to the county.
The group will leave Hawaii on March 21 and return the following week on March 29. They will arrive in Manila on the evening of March 22 and spend the bulk of their time in the city of Ormoc, on Leyte Island.
Those going on the trip include County Council vice chairman Angel Pilago and wife Nitta; Hawaii Electric Light Co. President Jay Ignacio; Hawaii County Research and Development Director Randy Kurohara; Geothermal Working Group co-chairs Richard Ha and Wally Ishibashi; Parker Ranch CEO Dutch Kuyper; and Bruce Mathews, the dean of the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management.
Others on the trip include Michael Kaleikini, manager of Puna Geothermal Venture; William Rolston, the county energy coordinator; Jane Clement, the Kona Visayan Club president; county immigration specialist Rose Bautista; and the county’s sister city coordinator. Nitta Pilago, Ignacio, Kaleikini, Mathews and Kuyper will be paying their own way.
The main purpose of the trip will be to investigate the potential to make Hawaii County completely energy independent, Kurohara said. The itinerary features visits to the local geothermal plant, Ormoc’s university and farms. They’ll also be feted at a banquet or two and, while in Manila, tour the country’s presidential palace.
“I think it’s a great investment of money. Because if we can come back with just part of the answers to what we’re struggling with right now as a county and as a state, is how to get more renewable energy locally produced on the grid instead of oil,” Kurohara said. “If you look at the cost of oil, it’s going to go up. It affects every household.”
Kurohara said the idea for the trip originated during planning of the APEC Hawaii summit in 2011, when the various counties “challenged themselves” to establish sister city relationships across the Pacific rim.
Hawaii County came up with two: Ormoc City, which has become known for its ability to exploit geothermal energy, and Kumejima, Japan, on a small island in Okinawa Prefecture, which has developed ocean thermal technology. Last September, each city sent official delegations of between 15 and 20 people to Hawaii, and the county hosted them. The groups were present for an official sister city signing ceremony in Honolulu, and this month’s trip is intended to be a reciprocal visit and feature a sister city signing ceremony in Ormoc. The county now has between seven and nine active sister city relationships, many of which are in Japan, Kurohara said.
According to a tentative itinerary provided by Kurohara, the delegation will arrive in Manila on the night of March 22 and spend March 23, a Friday, meeting with Philippines Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, and touring Malacanang Palace.
They’ll tour Manila on Saturday, March 24, before boarding a plane and heading to the city of Cebu. Sunday will be spent touring Cebu. “Probably some free time that day,” Kurohara said.
On March 26, a Monday, the group arrives in Ormoc and heads to Visayas State University, where they will talk about geothermal engineering education and research, agriculture programs and student exchanges. They’ll be feted that night with a welcome reception and sister city signing.
The next day, the group will tour the Leyte Geothermal Production Field. With a capacity of more than 700 megawatts, the combined capacity of several plants can produce several times the electricity consumption of the Big Island. They’ll also be speaking with company officials knowledgable in connecting energy cables between islands.
The final full day, on March 28, features what’s billed as a field visit with local agriculture and livestock farms, and if time permits, a wreath laying at Douglas MacArthur Park. They return to Hawaii on the 29th.
“The mayor’s primary initiative and goal in regards to energy is to be self-sustaining by 2015. In terms of renewable energy, it would be 100 percent,” he said. “Part of what many believe is to get to that point, or to get to that way, is to incorporate more geothermal power.”
Kurohara said that the Leyte field produces so much geothermal energy, it exports energy through undersea cables.
“Not only does it solve their own needs, it’s an economic driver for them as well,” he said.
To oil-dependent Hawaii County, geothermal energy is the answer to the coming energy crisis, and Ormoc is the example.
“We believe there is a lot to learn there,” Kurohara said.
The county’s increased interest in renewable energy is spurred in part by the report issued by Ha and Ishibashi’s Geothermal Working Group, which encourages larger investments in geothermal energy in Puna and Kona. But members of the group were not unanimous in its recommendations. Among the dissenters was Nelson Ho, a Sierra Club representative and a former deputy director of the Department of Environmental Management.
“As a member, I’ve cautioned the chair and co-chair that the impacts are really, very specific to the location that’s being drilled,” said Ho, who now works in council member Brittany Smart’s office.