On July 27, something new and yet completely ordinary happened in the American state of Hawaii. A cargo ship with 15,000 tonnes of coal in its cargo docked on the island of Oahu, where the Hawaiian capital Honolulu is located. As so many times before, the coal was to be burned in the coal-fired power plant, which for 30 years has been the island’s largest source of electricity. But this time was the very last time the ship docked. Hawaii has decided that it will stop using coal-fired power, and the island’s coal-fired power plant will therefore close on 1 September. That’s what Hawaii Public Radio writes. The state is thus following in the footsteps of other US states, such as Oregon and Illinois, which have also decided to end coal power. But Hawaii is the first American state to have taken one step further, and has set a goal that they will switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Therefore, the electricity from the closed coal power plant must be replaced by green energy sources, and especially solar energy, which the tropical Pacific islands have plenty of. New large solar cell plants are to be built, including a solar energy power plant with associated electricity storage, so that the island’s population of just over a million people can also get electricity at night. Running on oil, until green electricity is ready However, everything is not pure sustainable idyll in Hawaii, because some of the new renewable energy projects have been delayed and will not be completed before the coal power plant closes. According to the American power production company AES Corporation, which has, among other things, operated the coal-fired power plant on Oahu, the delays are due, among other things, to supply problems. This means that, for the time being, Hawaii is only able to replace half of the electricity from the old coal-fired power plant with renewable energy. The rest is expected to be covered by using more oil, until the renewable sources can take over. Therefore, there is still a long way to go before Hawaii reaches its goal of running on clean renewable energy. Oil currently accounts for four fifths of all energy production on Hawaii’s seven inhabited islands, and only 30 percent of Hawaii’s electricity comes from renewable sources. But the plans are moving forward. According to the US authorities, the use of solar energy has risen sharply in Hawaii in recent years. This is mainly due to the fact that many private individuals have set up their own solar cells on their roofs. Since 2015 alone, private electricity production with solar cells has doubled. Green energy from the earth’s red-hot interior Hawaii also has good opportunities to use geothermal energy, because the islands are created by volcanoes, which are still glowing inside. By drilling down to the hot rocks, water can be made to boil and thus drive a turbine. A study from 2005 showed that two of the largest islands in the archipelago, Hawaii and Maui, will together be able to generate around 1535 MW of energy in this way. It is more than eight times more energy than the coal power plant, which is now to be closed, which only has an output of 180 MW.
ttn-70
Coal ships have docked for the last time in Hawaii
