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Most electrical consumption is on an island two islands over from the volcanoes. Probably also geological: hot springs are not really a thing in Hawaii.
by throwawaymaths 3y ago
Most electrical consumption is on an island two islands over from the volcanoes. Probably also geological: hot springs are not really a thing in Hawaii.
- bix6 3y agoEasy, just move the volcanoes
- gumby 3y agoSounds so simple but in this case the volcanoes are the islands.
- breischl 3y agoGood news - the volcanoes are already moving! Bad news - they're moving at a geological pace, and away from most of the state's population and power demand.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoIf I were living on an island with a volcano, I'd put "moving at a geological pace" under the "good news" category.
- myself248 3y agoEasy, just move the power demand. Make it super cheap where it's naturally occurring, and a wizard, er, the market will solve it!
- throwawaymaths 3y agoA huge draw for living on Oahu is the military industrial complex
- d6e 3y agoRun an underwater hvdc line like the uk does
- throwawaymaths 3y agoSounds expensive
- nicoburns 3y agoI believe underwater lines are typically not that expensive (compared to other major energy generation/transmission projects). It's actually much easier to lay a cable in water (just drop it in) that it is over land (where you either have to construct pylons or dig a trench).
- brohee 3y agoThey are actually in a trench unless it's super deep. You don't want a ship anchor to catch a submarine cable...
- robocat 3y agoAre you guessing based on installations in other countries, or do you know that? I would presume that volcanic rock is difficult to put a trench down through. But I am interested to know. Edit: I found a good article with pictures of the equipment used about water jets to trench in soft seabeds: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/8/6/460/htm https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/8/6/460/htm It mentions cable ploughs and mechanical trenching machines. I would presume trenching in rock is sometimes required near-shore.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoIf nothing else, environmental review is a thing for anything that goes into the water in Hawaii, and that is very expensive.
- davedx 3y agoWell... the HVDC cables and in particular the converter stations at each end are quite a bit more expensive than equivalent HV AC infrastructure. But yes, it's definitely affordable and there are many submarine transmission interconnects throughout the world these days.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- senkora 3y agoIt does seem like it would be possible to lay a cable to transmit the power from the Big Island to Oahu. My reference for that is the plan to lay a cable to transmit power from Australia to Singapore.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoNobody is arguing that it is not possible
- BitwiseFool 3y agoIt would be surprisingly difficult to do, mostly because of local politics and views on development. See https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2017/08/puc-pulls-plug-on-oahu-maui-undersea-cable/ https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2017/08/puc-pulls-p...
- rtpg 3y ago> At the same time, the PUC initiated a proceeding to review progress of Castle & Cooke Resorts Lanai Wind Project, given C&C’s sale of its holdings to tech billionaire Larry Ellison about a year earlier. The docket covered “the uncertainty over Castle & Cooke Properties Inc.’s ability to develop the Lanai Wind Project” as a result of the sale, Tuesday’s filing said. Even before opening the article I had a feeling I would see Ellison's name _somewhere_. I don't know if the review trigger was an excuse, just annoyance at it being Ellison, or what, but wild how a single person can have so much of an effect.
- mcmoor 3y agoThis is the first time I heard about this so I'm very curious and it turns out of course it's delayed because of talks with Indonesia lmao.