Heart of Hawaii: Oil Powers Oahu’s Sustainable Energy Program

By David Shormann -- June 10, 2020

… on Oahu, generating 1 MW of power using wind and solar requires 154 acres of land. That’s more than 800 times as much land as the Kahe petroleum-fired power plant requires to generate the same amount of power. Using wind/solar projects to produce the same amount of electricity Oahu utilities produced in January 2020 would require … almost one-third of Oahu … be covered with solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage systems.

On Oahu’s west side, a Hawaiian green sea turtle snuggles up to a reef for an afternoon nap. But this is no ordinary reef. It’s the warm water outflow structure for Oahu’s biggest electric power producer, the Kahe Power Plant.

Built in the early 1960’s, the 651 megawatt (MW) workhorse often provides over 40% of Oahu’s power.…

Ocean Plastic Cleanup: Unintended Consequences (artificial habitat for mahi-mahi and more)

By David Shormann -- February 18, 2019

“Earth stewardship isn’t easy. Sometimes we make the wrong decisions. Sometimes whatever we do has both positive and negative consequences. One wrong decision is The Ocean Cleanup (TOC) project.”

“TOC’s plan … is not manual plastic removal, which allows most creatures to escape. It will instead use purse seines with a minimum mesh size of ⅛ inch (3 mm), capable of trapping microplastics—but also an untold number and variety of sea creatures.”

On a recent boating adventure in the open Pacific, my friends and I came across a section of abandoned fishing net. My first thought was, “Let’s remove it.”

But as I started to pull the net in, I saw a huge mahi-mahi resting in its shade. Also known as dorado or dolphinfish, the mahi-mahi (spooked by my activity) disappeared in a flash.…