Look to Kauai
for energy solution ADVERTISING Look to Kauai
for energy solution If the NextEra-Hawaiian Electric Industries merger does not go through, a utility co-op system for Hawaii Island could be part of the solution to prepare us for
Look to Kauai
for energy solution
If the NextEra-Hawaiian Electric Industries merger does not go through, a utility co-op system for Hawaii Island could be part of the solution to prepare us for coming changes.
The Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) has been operating for 12 years and its results have been impressive. KIUC was 100 percent debt-financed through a co-op financing system, and millions of dollars have gone into equity since then and have been refunded to its ratepayers.
There are 900 utility co-ops nationwide, which have gotten together and formed co-op banks to help finance utility co-ops. These banks have excellent credit ratings. The Cooperative Financing Corporation (CFC) has assets of $26 billion, and Co Bank has $100 billion.
KIUC’s electricity costs were the highest of all the Hawaii counties when it started. But in 12 years, its costs have risen the least. This is despite its not having geothermal and not being able to use wind because of bird kills.
This coming weekend, KIUC is having a blessing of its new Anahola photovoltaic system. That system is significant because it is using daytime sun for nighttime use, and it’s one of the first such systems in the nation.
The co-op system, with its locally managed board of directors, is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people. It’s nimble and practical.
A hybrid electricity system for our state might be just what we need to prepare for the future.
Richard Ha
Owner, Hamakua Springs
Country Farms, Hilo
Rid us of dengue by
spraying with DDT
Want to nip this dengue fever in the butt? Just demothball the fog machines of the 1940s and begin fogging the suspected areas with DDT. This was done in Hawaii and other Pacific islands during the war years with no adverse effects to humans of that era or to our tropical (weather) atmosphere.
Don’t spend your life believing such writings as the “Silent Spring.” Hawaii did not lose a bird or suffer any such abnormality or abnegation (self-denial). We all have lived happy lives and maybe, just maybe, with a few less centipedes and other icky critters. But who knows, maybe my quirkiness comes from overexposure to the DDT along with the many other quirks that have befallen me throughout my many years.
Hugo von Platen Luder
Holualoa
