 Welcome to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together to walk towards a clean, renewable and just energy future. I am your host, Raya Salter. I'm an energy attorney, clean energy advocate and community outreach specialist. I'm also the principal attorney of Imagine Power LLC. Today we're going to take a look at important energy and utility news from Hawaii around the country and the world, as reported in the last week. First, let's take a look at some recent developments in clean energy and clean energy policy in the islands. Lots of stuff going on today. So, energy usage halved at Hawaii's airports with LED lighting and solar systems. With an aimed reduce energy consumption, the Hawaii Department of Transportation has moved into the second phase of its energy savings performance contract with multinational conglomerate Johnson Controls to provide energy efficient lighting at 11 Hawaii airports and solar PV systems at Honolulu International Airport. Phase two of the contract guarantees $65.5 million in energy savings through the replacement and retrofit of 47,747 existing fluorescent lamps to LED lamps, the application of high end trim to 8,256 LED fixtures. Now this customizes the light level for an area in order to prevent using more energy than is necessary. And the installation of 15,683 PV roof mounted panels, including parking lot canopy systems at the Honolulu International Airport, capable of producing 5.3 megawatts of power. So, the total energy savings guaranteed at Hawaii's airport exceeds $606 million over a 15-year period, with the addition of phase two, according to the Department. Phase one and phase two combined will see an installation totaling about 98,000 lamps and over 24,400 PV panels, which is expected to bring in almost 8 megawatts of energy savings in power generation. So, construction to implement phase two is planned to start over the next 24 months and is funded by realized energy savings instead of taxpayers' money. So, this is a wonderful example of how energy efficiency continues to be a win-win. And I think it's so exciting when you see projects of this magnitude, we see thousands and thousands and thousands of light bulbs and PV panels, what we're really talking about is updating our infrastructure to be more modern. And I know that things like LED lights sometimes don't seem that exciting. But I think almost all of us have walked through that Honolulu airport and sometimes it feels like Elvis is about to get off the plane. It can feel retro. You see those old-fashioned lights, you see old-fashioned lighting and you know what? Just moving to more modern lighting fixtures and other improvements, including the PV and the parking, that also sounds great, can save huge amounts of money. I think we saw $606 million over 15 years and, of course, continuing phase two is actually paid for out of the savings that have been achieved as opposed to getting new monies from taxpayers. So, I think we need to see a lot more of these kinds of projects. I think it can be somewhat controversial. You know, we've got infrastructure and this is not only in Hawaii. This is across the country. Our utility infrastructure is at a point where it's been aging 125 years plus. For most of it, of course, we know Hawaii had some of the first electric lighting in the country in Eolani Palace. And building infrastructure, we've got a lot of old buildings, these grand structures that we put up. It's been more than 100 years, 80 years, 50 years. We've got some crumbling infrastructure. So it can be challenging to put clean and renewable power on top of crumbling infrastructure. And one thing that I think can be utilized in almost every situation is energy efficiency. So at the very least, go in, save money by investing in some new equipment that's going to just save money. So congratulations to the success of Johnson Controls and the Honolulu Airport for really showing us how a win-win can modernize our infrastructure, save money, save energy, and help the environment help create a more sustainable Hawaii. Next, 15 clean economy startups have been selected to advance to the final round of the Verge Hawaii Accelerate Fast Pitch showcase. Now we've got a list of finalists. I'll go ahead and read them because it's fun to sort of just hear the names of some of these cool new companies. So the finalists are Boy Labs, Challenget, Challenget, Challengenergy, Challenergy, Challenergy Inc. I question their name. It's a little hard to pronounce. Go Electric, GridCure, Hi-Five Energy Systems, Iteros, Prosumer Grid, Repower Capital, Retrolux, Software Motor Corporation, Solstice Energy Solutions, Solstice Power Technologies, Swift Mile, Touchlight Innovations, and Wedge Global. So what's happened here is there is a public voting period. So for those of us, the Verge conference happens in June here. And it's also put on by the Hawaii State Energy Office. And every year they have a contest that sort of pulls together some folks who then get to sort of present to this audience about their business. And it's a good place for them to showcase. I was there last year. And there were several memorable companies that pitched the work that they were doing. You had these sort of, for the most case, young CEOs who have these great ideas. And they come forward, talk about them. And then the people at the conference actually vote. So during the, so this is the preliminary voting period. So thousands of votes were cast to help choose which of the 22 semifinalists would be invited to pitch on the main stage of Verge in Hawaii. In addition to public votes, finalists were selected based on eligibility criteria that include. So this is cool. This is what's happening with the startups now. Developing technology solutions, they have to be commercially applicable products or services now, related to at least one of the following Verge-Hawaii topics. So that's distributed a renewable energy, transportation, agriculture, water, or infrastructure resilience. So being incorporated with a product ready for testing or deployment, having less than $5 million in combined investment in current revenue. Verge-Hawaii Accelerate provides exposure for early stage entrepreneurs whose technology innovations support the transition to 100% renewable in Hawaii and beyond. Finalists will deliver their pitches from the Verge-Hawaii stage to hundreds of business leaders, government officials, and investors, as well as thousands more tuning into the global Verge virtual live stream. So again, fun, cool to hear what is going on. You know, now is a great time, I think, to be an entrepreneur, to be teaming up with engineers, coming together with ideas that can form solutions, and going ahead and run to market. The risk is high, yes. The reward, potentially astronomical. The competition, extremely intense. But I do think that we're in a position in a market right now where we do have some venture capitalists. We have more nonprofit, more foundation funders who are looking to do impact investing. So it's just really cool and a, you know, a neat thing. And I think it's awesome that Verge is sort of working this angle. And I look forward to seeing who wins the competition. So next up, the Department of the Navy Pacific Energy Solutions and Hawaiian Electric and the Hawaii State Energy Office celebrated the completion of a 14.3 megawatt direct current solar facility at the joint base Pearl Harbor Hickam in Waipio in Hawaii. The completion of the project was commemorated in a ribbon cutting ceremony April 28th. And notable ceremony presenters and attendees included Rear Admiral John Fuller, Commander of Navy Region Hawaii, Rear Admiral John Corka, Commander of Naval Facilities Engineering, Command Pacific and U.S. specifically Civil Engineer, John Clime, Executive Director, DON's Resilient Energy Program Office, Captain Stanley Keeve Jr., Commander, Ron Cox, Senior President of Operation and Hawaiian Electric, and Dr. Terrence Searles, Interim Administrator at the Hawaii State Energy Office. So we've got a quote, Our Navy is tough during wartime and well-preserving peace. That same level of determination drives day-to-day problem solving as well as our approached energy security. We are bold in our thinking, embracing innovation and new technologies just as we have done throughout our history. Our senior leaders empower us and expect us to be adaptive, resilient and forward-thinking. That applies to both our nation's defense and to our commitment to energy security, Fuller said. So Pacific Energy Solutions built and will own, operate and maintain the solar facility and the installation will be the sole consumer of the power produced by the PV facility under a contract referred to as a power purchase agreement. So, you know, it's great to hear such you know, bold and vision-oriented language coming from the Navy. I think the Navy in particular has really been a leader over the past, well, I think our military has been leaders for a long time in developing new technology, including new energy technology. And I think the Navy in particular, at least, very least under the Bomb Administration, has really stepped forward to push forward on policy, to push forward on technology. The Navy understands that clean energy is a big part of our energy security, and I know I've talked about this before, but one thing that came out of a lot of the issues in the Iraq war in Afghanistan was realizing the vulnerability of supply chains, especially fuel chains, going to remote areas. And that's where a lot of our servicemen and women have been killed or injured. So the idea of having, you know, understanding that you could take your own spot power and not have to be exposed to that vulnerability really was something that caught fire. And really, I mean, of course, supply chain vulnerability is nothing new, but with the advent of solar technology, I really think that narrative helped really power a big difference in the way a lot of people think about solar energy and green energy and at least distributed energy, no longer the province of greenies or tree huggers, people all across the board, I think, understand more and more of the importance of this type of technology to our energy security. So certainly the Navy have been very prominent in making that happen. So moving on, Jumpstart Maui stakeholders announced the successful completion of Jumpstart Maui, a collaborative demonstration project between Japan, Hawaii, and Maui that incorporated smart grid, renewable energy, and all electric vehicle solutions in Maui's electrical grid. Now the goal of Jumpstart Maui, based on a US-Japan government agreement, was to demonstrate smart grid technologies to enable the efficient use of renewable energy in an island setting. The project would aggregate and control distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and other innovative technologies to respond to changing demands on the grid caused by the increasing levels of as available renewable energy. Jumpstart Maui installed 13 DC fast chargers in Maui. MedBee and Hitachi Advanced Clean Energy Corporation continue to provide good charging service with members participating in the project. Since the project launched in June 2011, 530 residents and businesses participated in this demonstration project that was conducted in two phases. In phase one, the project reported more than 200 EV owners or lessees of the Nissan Leaf and 30 homeowner volunteers. The Leaf was selected because of its battery size. Now Jumpstart Maui installed 13 fast charging stations across Maui, the first such installation in Hawaii. Participants were offered access to the fast charging stations as well as the installation of level 2 chargers and smart energy monitoring devices at their homes. During this phase, valuable data was collected from volunteers to evaluate how these devices could contribute to the electric grid with more renewables being integrated. Phase two advanced the next phase of energy management for homes and businesses. A total of 80 volunteers were provided with the EV power conditioning systems. These were units they got at their homes. As part of the demonstration these EV PCSs and now this is a technology developed by Hitachi charge the EV and discharge the power to the home or business or to Maui electric in response to the needs of the electric grid. The overall goal of this phase was to create a virtual power plant that would integrate and manage distributed renewable energy resources such as EV batteries within the electric grid for the benefit of the community. Jumpstart Maui was funded by Japan's largest public research and development management organization. Stakeholder partners include Hitachi Advanced Clean Energy Corporation along with Mizuhuo Corporate Bank and Cyber Defense Institute. Nissan, the state of Hawaii, the county of Maui, Maui Electric and Hawaiian Electric Company. Also Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, Maui Economic Development Board, University of Hawaii, Maui College, a long list of folks and as we said this enabled the installation of a total of 13 DC fast charging stations. Battery energy storage systems were installed at UH Maui College and wastewater treatment plant too. So 200 level 2 chargers and 80 of these devices were installed at the volunteer sites. So we'll talk a little bit more about Jumpstart Maui when we come back from our break. Please come back to join us soon at Power of Hawaii. We're going to talk a little bit about this project in Maui so just really we really went over it we talked about who all the partners were but I think this is a this has really been a big step forward for a number of reasons some of which you may not have originally thought of. So we're used to people who aing up lots a lot to the the same folks getting together to do stuff but this is something that really move forward and why and yeah a lot of folks wanting to see equal public private partnerships and wanting to see a lot of things go forward. Why do I think this move forward? I remember watching a presentation about this project back in 2014 and I thought what the difference was is that volunteers and other volunteers who are both participating in the program but also volunteers for the community went out into the community and went and spoke at you know public gatherings knocked on doors recruited people to participate spoke to people at their homes and places of business in schools about this program and what it could mean and that I believe it's that working with the community that ends up bringing these projects to light and bringing them forward. I think you know we talk about islands as successful laboratories you know if we've got a relatively small community we can do the work to reach out and talk to each other and see what our needs are. I know that New York has had a lot of really ambitious community energy projects and ideas and I know that when I've spoken to people there a lot of them are moving forward but I think the hitch is who's going to be that glue who's that glue who can go out and see who in communities are going to be receptive how has the ability and skill set to work with that community really understand what their needs are and then bring them together with the right types of entrepreneurs business people government funding it's that glue but I think in many cases is missing so it is fantastic that Maui is moving forward with phase two people have been talking about virtual power plants collecting data and then actually leveraging that data to sort of move on to some of this more fear what has before been theoretical this idea that you could have an actual customer asset like an electric vehicle car battery that then by this technology that they that 80 customers took that you can put that in your your house I presume and then it can it can if you've got solar well I'd be interested to know more exactly about where exactly how this works but what I do understand from the article is that you've got the energy in the car battery that can then be dispatched and to sort of fill in the gaps as needed on the grid and that when you can compile this you've got maybe 10 20 30 40 100 200 300 EVs that you can do this with you've got a virtual power plant and it really changes the way we think about who generates power and who accepts power when you think about this virtual power plant being your car and who wouldn't like to think of their car which for many of us outside of what we pay for our home is our sort of biggest expense being able to be an asset in new ways and also helping electric vehicles be something that could be more viable and add value that just sort of ricochets across the electric system across the transportation system and can really go a ways towards getting us off fossil fuel which as we said before can help clean up communities lower our carbon footprint clean up the air and increase our energy security so cool yay Maui on the cutting edge as usual working with communities and harnessing cutting-edge new energy technology lots of news out of hawaii so as reported by the associated press the hawaii legislature concluded with a sudden change in leadership in the house of representatives ending a session marked by failure to pass a major bill to fund Honolulu's troubled rail transit project and the death of many other significant proposals hawaii representative scott psyche was elected speaker Thursday last Thursday after representative joseph soukey stepped down as part of a dramatic close to the 2017 legislative session last Thursday was the final day of the session and many bills died at the last minute as lawmakers focused on finding a way to continue funding the planned Honolulu rail project the price tag for rail has ballooned to an estimated 10 billion with financing costs and is facing a shortfall expected from 1.4 billion to 3 billion so because the house in the senate could not reach agreement on the rail finance bill lawmakers may be called back for a special session but disagreements over rail funding held up a number of other bills in the final days of the session among the bills that died was a proposal to set a clean transportation goal to use 100 renewable fuels by 2045 bills that sought financial incentives for installing renewable energy storage systems also failed so i think it's been a bit of a tough season at the ledge this year you know it's it's funny these are you know completely separate but sometimes a big elephant in the room can whether or not you're looking at it it can suck all the air out of the room i feel like the next era merger proceeding was sort of one of those elephants there were so many things going on at the puc but that particular you know it seemed like nothing could move nothing could breathe nothing could move forward or get off the mark until that decision was made and i think rail is having that similar or evidently had that similar effect this season we'll see you know how the state moves forward on a big important infrastructure project and what that will also mean for process and other bills so moving on this is not about hawaii but it's about a professor who is based here and it's really cool it's been reported that a new process for water filtration using carbon dioxide consumes 1,000 times less energy than conventional methods according to scientific research published published recently the research was led by dr oris shart of the university of limerick ireland together with dr sanghu shin who's now at uh while they were post-doctoral researches at princeton last year with a global demand for clean water increasing there's a continuing need to improve the performance of water treatment processes shart expects this new method which uses co2 could be applied in a variety of industries such as mining food and beverage production pharmaceutical manufacturing and water treatment the research published in open access scientific journal nature communications and indicates that the new process could be easily scaled up suggesting the technique could be particularly beneficial in both the developing and developed worlds the new method could also be used to remove bacteria and viruses without chlorination or ultraviolet treatment so fantastic news you know it's we know that water has become in short supply in many many regions many jurisdictions including california in no small part due to climate change and we know that the loss of water is a cause of many conflicts and actually it's one of the causes of the conflicts that are happening in syria right now so it's wonderful technology can't always come to the rescue but it's wonderful when technology can come to the rescue it'll be exciting to see if we can have this water filtration done with so much much less energy than than is used before it is used now one thousandth of the energy that does so much to conserve energy make water filtration more affordable and more doable for people who's so very desperately needed so congratulations i think it's fantastic that a uh scientist is part of this incredible invention and we wish this invention the best of success as it goes forward more interesting news there's so much going on really u.s senators back a bill to reauthorize research of wave power so u.s senators ron wyden organ angus king main jeff murkley of oregon and our own brian shots including mazy uh and mazy harono announced jointly on may 3rd that they had introduced legislation legislation to increase domestic production of low-carbon renewable energy from the natural power and ocean waves tides and currents the marine energy act would reauthorize 60 million annually from fiscal year 2008 through 2022 for the department of energies marine renewable energy programs among them initiatives at r&d demonstration centers nationwide including one operated by oregon state university and others right here in hawaii and addition to florida in addition to authorizing funding the bill directs the doe to research how to build a stable marine energy supply chain in the united states and to find ways to ensure that the technology coexist with other types of offshore energy and fisheries indeed according to a may 5th report by e&e daily the department of energy estimates that marine energy also known as ocean wave energy could produce enough renewable energy to power more than 200 million american homes the senators say federal funding is key to realizing that potential because the technology is still in the early early stages of development so this is of course very exciting very interesting this is high politics of course we've got uh we've got our own senators here and some others looking to bring back some funding for wind power and wave power research i believe this is something that has been teed up for a long time we know that they're heading into what could be a very hostile republican majority at the you know at the federal level president donald trump has come out against clean energy development i think he's come out for coal and against clean energy and as if we have time we'll get to later has also signaled that they're looking for ways how they can reach into state renewable energy mandates by saying that they believe that having mandates renewable energy could compromise the grid and that could be a federal matter so i think it's interesting at the same time we know that in the last budget bill we did not see the rollback in a epa funding and we did not see the rollback happily for the east west center and a lot of other projects in hawaii so it'll be interesting to see this go forward i for one would love to see this research go forward it would provide potential valuable information potentially a some prototypes and also bring some industry to the state so i wish our senators best of luck there's also a another bill has been introduced to overhaul and streamline the current system for federal energy tax credits so that's another interesting item because you know i think a lot of folks have been thinking what about the existing tax credits on the federal level and are they going to disappear under a trump administration in fact i think it's been fueling some energy deals that want to happen before some of that goes away so it'll be very interesting to see what happens there so it's interesting i think that they're coming forward with ways where they want to see these tax credits streamlined and improved i don't know if this is them trying to get ahead of what they may fear could be a rollback of those of those incentives under the trump administration but certainly they're taking taking the lead and looking to be proactive and say we've got great programs how can we finesse this so it can have even more impact i for one would want to see more thought going towards who the tax credits end up helping in terms of company and what sectors of the economy because a lot of the rooftop solar tax credits ended up getting the industry going but ended up healthy helping the wealthy so how can we make sure we get inclusive policy that helps democratize clean and renewable energy for as many people as possible so that brings us to the end of another edition of power up hawaii thank you so much for joining me signing off this is raya salter aloha and mahalo