Friday, April 13, 2007
Hunter Bishop on geothermal energy study
When we lived in Manoa I often wondered, as I watched the rain gushing off of rooftops, why that so very abundant and free resource was wasted.
Why were my water/sewage bills steadily increasing while water that could be used at least to flush toilets and do the laundry was gushing off my roof? On nearby Tantalus, where houses aren't connected to city services, they make use of catchment water. Why not the rest of us?
And speaking of water, we're surrounded by waves but don't have any wave power generators. Europe is doing it, we can also.
What's new with geothermal power?
Reporter Hunter Bishop discusses a recent report on potential uses for geothermal energy and questions why we are not making more use of it.
The report explores possible economic uses besides power generation. When we lived in Japan, we visited hothouses (and of course, hot springs) which were fed by Japan's abundant geothermal resources. It's tru that Japan and other countries have this thing called "cold" for which geothermal heat is the natural antidote. But still, there are things we could possibly make use of. The mystery is why we don't.
Google is a great help in this informal research. My first hit surveys worldwide usage of geothermal resources in little capsule articles. At least, awareness of what others are doing could give us some ideas.
Nothing is truly free, perhaps, but it's clear that some forms of energy have the potential to replace expensive imported oil. It should be a priority for us to exploit these possibilities (and HECO should not be running the alternative energy show--it just doesn't make sense). Costs for energy as well as everything else keeps going up. Wouldn't it be neat to reduce the large hunk of your budget that goes to paying for water and electricity?
Why were my water/sewage bills steadily increasing while water that could be used at least to flush toilets and do the laundry was gushing off my roof? On nearby Tantalus, where houses aren't connected to city services, they make use of catchment water. Why not the rest of us?
And speaking of water, we're surrounded by waves but don't have any wave power generators. Europe is doing it, we can also.
What's new with geothermal power?
Reporter Hunter Bishop discusses a recent report on potential uses for geothermal energy and questions why we are not making more use of it.
The report explores possible economic uses besides power generation. When we lived in Japan, we visited hothouses (and of course, hot springs) which were fed by Japan's abundant geothermal resources. It's tru that Japan and other countries have this thing called "cold" for which geothermal heat is the natural antidote. But still, there are things we could possibly make use of. The mystery is why we don't.
Google is a great help in this informal research. My first hit surveys worldwide usage of geothermal resources in little capsule articles. At least, awareness of what others are doing could give us some ideas.
Nothing is truly free, perhaps, but it's clear that some forms of energy have the potential to replace expensive imported oil. It should be a priority for us to exploit these possibilities (and HECO should not be running the alternative energy show--it just doesn't make sense). Costs for energy as well as everything else keeps going up. Wouldn't it be neat to reduce the large hunk of your budget that goes to paying for water and electricity?
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