 Hello, Aloha, and welcome to Power Up Hawaii, where Hawaii comes together for a green energy future. My name is Raya Salter. I'm an energy attorney and principal of Imagine Power LLC. Today, we're going to talk about Hawaii's clean energy development and why it's important to the mainland United States and also throughout the globe. We're also going to talk about how we may need to do business a little differently when it comes to energy so that we can really reach our renewable energy goals. So it's clear, one thing that's very true, why is Hawaii a leader? Well one reason, people care deeply about renewable energy here in Hawaii. According to a 2013 University of Hawaii study, 97% of folks here in Hawaii support renewable energy. Why? According to the study, people in Hawaii are concerned about the environment, they're concerned about sustainability, and they're also concerned and frustrated by high energy prices. And as we know last year, Governor E. Gay made 100% renewable goal by 2035, the law of the land. So Hawaii is the first state in the nation to have pledged a 100% renewable energy goal and is leading the nation on renewable energy in that regard. It's important to note that the leadership of Hawaii on renewable energy is not only important for the US mainland but also important throughout the globe. So we're going to talk about this today. Let's get started. First, let's talk about the mainland. Environmental advocates in the mainland have been fighting for renewable energy goals and other tactics and policies that will further renewable energy for a very long time, as you know. When I was an energy attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York advocating for clean energy, we were fighting as hard as we could to see New York State achieve a high RPS. When Hawaii stepped forward and became the first state in the nation to embrace a 100% renewable energy goal, it was incredibly exciting for us. And after Hawaii took this step, it almost seemed like there was a domino effect on RPS. Hawaii 2015, 100% renewable energy. Oregon, the fair state of Oregon, 2016, adopted a new aggressive renewable portfolio standard as well. 50% by 2040. Then, what was extremely exciting to me, of course, the Empire State, the great state of New York. The Big Apple in 2016 also reached for an extremely aggressive RPS. So, I really want to say thank you. Oh, pictures going a little fast. Thank you. No problem. Sorry. I really want to say thank you, Hawaii. Thank you for your leadership on clean energy. So, last June, I was in New York when the Hokulea sailed into Manhattan for World Oceans Day. I think it was a beautiful example of what Hawaii brings to the Empire State and also to the rest of the world. To me, the culture of sustainability and clean energy is part of what Hawaii is bringing around the country and also around the world. So, why is this important? Hawaii has, as we've talked about, shown leadership in clean energy in the United States. Of course, Hawaii is also an island nation with very close ties to other nations in the Pacific. Let's turn now to focus on how Hawaii's leadership here is also leadership in the Pacific. And it's important to talk about how Hawaii can work with other small island nations in the Pacific to discover energy solutions that can be applied for islands and also throughout the globe. So, this past spring, I had the opportunity to visit several island nations to talk about this very subject, the importance of island nations working together for a clean energy future. I discovered that it is clear that our brothers and sisters in the Pacific are moving towards clean energy for islands and want to work with Hawaii in order to achieve these goals. And I'm going to talk a little bit about the islands that I visited and the conversations that we had. I visited Fiji, Tuvalu, and the Kingdom of Tonga to talk about clean energy and a renewable energy transition for islands. So first, I visited Fiji as the guest of IUCN Oceana, who were extremely generous hosts. There, I was part of a team that met with local environmental and conservation groups in addition to meeting with the energy and utility and infrastructure ministers of the country. We were able to speak with them about the importance of the renewable energy transition, in particular, in regard to resilience. This is power and energy being able to withstand extreme weather events. As we were there, the island of Fiji had just suffered through Hurricane Winston. You're seeing a wonderful welcome ceremony, a Kava ceremony that they gave to us when we came to Fiji, even though they had just been under water for this terrible storm. We were able to talk to a lot of folks, IUCN Oceana and the energy and utility and infrastructure ministers, about what is it that you need to achieve 100% renewable energy so that you don't have to spend as much of your budget on fossil fuel? What is it that you need in order to keep the power on during intense hurricanes? And what is it that you need to bring energy access to people who have never had it before? Some of the answers, I think, are the same answers that we are searching for here. Here we are with the infrastructure minister, the chair of the Public Power Association, the head of IUCN Oceana's energy program. That's also Hawaii's own Hank Rogers and his wife, Akemi. So it's clear what is that we need. We need microgrid systems that can provide energy access to a remote area. We also learned that some of the priorities for people living in those areas are solar ice machines, why? Solar ice can help cool fish so that the fishing industry can prosper and also create a microbusiness for people who can package and sell the ice. So it was absolutely a treat and very interesting and helpful to see how Fiji is leading the world on renewable energy. And I think it's important to note that the Ambassador to Fiji, Ambassador Thompson, has been elected the President of the United Nations General Assembly. So that may mean that he can set an oceans and energy for islands agenda that can further help guide islands towards clean and renewable energy. So also, through this trip to the Pacific, I visited the island of Tuvalu. Tuvalu is a fascinating country. It is an island chain, but the main island houses about 9,000 people and is only six miles long. And it is only, I think, at its furthest width. It's not three miles across. You can drive up the one road and back in Tuvalu and you can look and you can see the ocean on both sides. So it's a small nation of wonderful, warm and friendly people who also have an extreme need to protect their country from extreme weather events that they will experience even more frequently due to climate change. And a big part of that is keeping the quality of life, keeping the power on for people who live there and being able to have the power for use for related energy infrastructure projects. So here we are in the nation of Tuvalu. You'll see they've got some great signs, labeling standby, backup and master power. This is their master power station. We were also able to take a look at the solar array that they have installed in Tuvalu. They have state-of-the-art equipment, solar with an excellent set of backup storage for energy. And of course, what's always the most wonderful and interesting part of such a trip is to be able to see and meet the people. We were given a wonderful reception with traditional dancing by the children of Tuvalu. Next, we moved on to the kingdom of Tonga. Tonga has been taking leadership on renewable energy for several years. Tonga was actually the first nation, a small island nation in the Pacific, to develop a clean energy roadmap, and that was in 2005. They have also developed a program of policies and projects aimed at creating a 100% resilient Tonga. So it was certainly a pleasure to go and meet with the Prime Minister of Tonga. Here we are with the Prime Minister of Tonga. I think by his willingness to meet with this delegation from Hawaii to talk about renewable energy really shows how much it is a priority for the nation. We were also able to meet with some of their top utility administrators. This is a Stanford-educated engineer who runs the utility on Tonga, extremely prepared, progressive, and smart, looking to get the lessons that they can glean from the mainland and Hawaii and elsewhere to be on the absolute forefront of renewable energy in Tonga. We also had the privilege of going to the beautiful island of Hapai and met with the mayor of Hapai, who also is very motivated to see Tonga and his island on Tonga be 100% renewable energy. And of course, again embracing and experiencing wonderful cultural traditions, we feasted as the guests of our extremely warm hosts everywhere that we went. And the island of Hapai was no exception. So I think the takeaway from my trip to the Pacific was A. Other island nations see Hawaii as a brother or sister nation in developing clean and renewable energy solutions for islands. And there is a willingness to work together to develop these solutions. I think that it's extremely important that we work to find the solutions to these problems together. So I hope that I have convinced you that what Hawaii does with clean energy is extremely important not only on the mainland but for many other parts of the world. In fact, the innovations that happen on islands and in Hawaii have the potential to not only help other islands in the Pacific, but help islands in the Caribbean and also islands and other oceans and I think provide the foundation for finding solutions to clean and renewable energy worldwide. And we'll be right back. Hi, I'm Stacy Hayashi and you can catch me on Mondays at 11 on Think Tech Hawaii. Stacy to the rescue. See you then. I'm Ethan Allen, host of likeable science here on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2pm, you'll have a chance to come and listen and learn from scientists around the world. Scientists who talk about their work in meaningful, easy to understand ways. And you'll come to appreciate science as a wonderful way of thinking, way of knowing about the world. You'll learn interesting facts, interesting ideas, you'll be stimulated to think more. Please come join us every Friday afternoon at 2pm here on Think Tech Hawaii for likeable science with me, your host Ethan Allen. Aloha, I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii is my mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same name at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3pm. Aloha. Hello, Aloha and welcome back to Power of Hawaii. Again, I'm your host, Raya Salter. I'm an energy attorney and principal attorney with Imagine Power LLC. Today we're talking about why renewable energy in Hawaii and the progressive leadership that Hawaii has demonstrated in renewable energy is important to the mainland and not only the mainland but to the globe more generally. So we talked about, we talked about some of the gains that have happened in the mainland since Hawaii stepped out to take this courageous step to be the first state in the nation to adopt a 100% renewable energy goal. We saw the state of Oregon adopt a new RPS and we saw the state of New York, the Empire State adopt a more rigorous RPS. And again, as I had mentioned before, as an advocate in New York I'm a recent transplant having moved here earlier this year. I was an advocate and an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and we have been putting on the pressure and turning up the heat on the government of New York which is a progressive energy state to go ahead and take the step forward and say we are going to set an aspirational, a high aspirational goal for renewable energy. Why is an aspirational goal so important? One, it sets the tone, it sets the tone for business, it sets the tone for advocacy, it lets everyone know here we are, we are in the business of renewable energy in the state. Come invest in this state and make solutions happen in this state. That's one reason why RPS is so important. What's another reason why RPS is so important? We need guideposts and markers to figure out how are we going to get to 100% renewable energy? How are we going to actually change and transform the system? Believe it or not, it's not easy to dig into the details of any particular utility system and from the ground up really say not only what are the technologies that are going to allow us to move forward on renewable energy now and what are some of the technologies that are going to be developed five years hence and what are some of the technologies that are going to be developed 10 years hence? So it's almost impossible to have an ambitious transformational goal that's based on what can be measured incrementally right now. So we have to when we embrace ambitious goals, we need to have faith, have faith in progress, progress that we as Americans and others throughout the world have demonstrated through our ability to innovate and have faith that there is going to be greater and greater opportunity and better and better technology to forward us towards these goals. So this is just two reasons why RPS is important. I'll add a third reason why a renewable, a robust renewable portfolio standard is important. A state doesn't only have renewable energy goals. A state has a full slate of energy policy goals that may relate to saving energy, that may relate to making energy more affordable and it's important as we look at where we're going to be with 100% renewables that we fold these other goals, some of which are similarly ambitious into the program and the regime. So I just wanted to speak a little bit to why a robust renewable portfolio standard is not just pie in the sky and why it really is so important that Hawaii took the step in leadership, helped push states like Oregon and New York and is also providing leadership to other nations in the Pacific. One other piece about that, that the folks in the Kingdom of Tonga were just really so progressive, so helpful. The Kingdom of Tonga had had a 100% renewable energy goal like Hawaii now does but they had saw that there were some real challenges in order to meet those goals and they had rolled back their expectations for meeting them. Now this happened at Paris at the beginning of the year, which I know many people are aware is where the nations came together to put together a historic climate agreement. In Paris, every participating nation provided documentation that described how they were going to contribute to the reduction of global greenhouse gases. Tonga took a look just earlier this year at where they were and what their capabilities were and they said, you know what, we're going to roll back from 100% at Paris because without the help of the international community, without support financially, without technological expertise, we can't make this our goal on our own. So I think it was very significant that I was able to speak with their energy team and really say, come to Hawaii in September for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress. Come and stand with Hawaii, stand with the Governor of Hawaii and recommit to 100% renewable energy because we can do it and we can do it together and use this opportunity on the world stage in order to do so. And I think it was a 100% reflection on the progressiveness of the Kingdom of Tonga that they came and indeed did that. Here we are with the Deputy Prime Minister of Tonga. Also on that day, we had the top utility official from American Samoa come to talk about 100% renewable energy and there are instances where other nations are in fact ahead of where we are. So the top, well not other nations, American Samoa is the US territory but the official from American Samoa was able to come and announce that this year they have achieved 100% renewable energy on two of their outer islands which was an exciting announcement and goes to show how we can work together. You saw that picture during that press conference, Boutou Malai from American Samoa talked about how excited they were to reach 100% renewable energy and also how they learned a lot of lessons from Hawaii and the Hawaii utilities in order to do so. So we've covered a lot about why aspirational goals are important and why international and national collaboration are important to renewable energy but let's dig in a little bit to some of the major challenges that we face and what we need to figure out here in Hawaii that will allow us to go ahead and be that model for other islands and be that model for the rest of the country. So we know that it will is not the problem. Renewable energy, sustainable energy, energy independence is I think baked into the morality of the folks who live in Hawaii as evidenced by 97% of people in Hawaii being supportive of renewable energy. So what is really holding us back? What are some of the trends in the power and utility industry that is preventing us from getting 200% renewable energy? Well one thing I think that folks understand is that as people take advantage of rooftop solar on their individual home and experience the benefit of a reduced energy cost every person who defects from being a customer of the utility that is a customer that is lost by the utility. So there is the idea that as more and more consumers leave the grid then you will have less and less consumers there able to create revenue for the grid. So how the utility makes money now is that it invests in the energy system and it receives revenue back from customers and the more energy that the utility sells by and large the more money that the utility makes. So you can see how as more folks go off the grid this can lead to what some call the utility death spiral and I think I've got an image that tries to explain this. This is something that has been of concern. This is something that has been of concern to utilities all across the country. Hawaii is absolutely no exception and as I think is very graphically displayed here what you've got is utility revenues spiraling down and ultimately what would happen if the utility wasn't able to make money? Well as more and more people were able to have their own systems theoretically that would mean less and less money to maintain the system. That would mean that the most vulnerable customers who aren't able to leave the system would remain on the system and it could be a disaster of a breakdown in service, a breakdown in safety, a breakdown in reliability and it could cause energy prices to skyrocket. So that is terrifying. Does it really need to be that way? Does it really need to be a zero sum game? I think I've got a picture that tries to illustrate. Does it really need to be a zero sum game where one person is happy and others are not and then the only way for the other one to be happy is for the other to not be and I think that now this is not the case. There are a number of techniques and ideas that can change this dynamic and it's really about new paradigms. It's about the utility and customers and government and civil society really working together to think how can we change this model of how we do business? And this is, of course, extremely important. One way that we can change this concept is thinking about how does the utility make money? If we modernize our grid to create a more efficient energy system, can the utility have new revenue streams that can support this new business model? And I think the answer is yes. As more and more customers have rooftop solar, as more commercial industrial consumers have solar, the utility can make new revenue streams by providing grid services, enhanced grid services. The utility can also invest in technologies that will allow for more clean and renewable energy to be put onto the grid, which also could create a new revenue stream. I think I have a picture of what we call sort of smart grid. This is what a more flexible and efficient energy system could look like. This is a system that includes rooftop solar, wind, energy management, and batteries and other technology that can make a cleaner grid. Sometimes it makes sense for the utility to make money by saving energy instead of by generating and selling energy. This can be for several ways. One, energy efficiency can have extreme value to the grid. Also, it turns out that the power is not priced evenly at every time of the day. The most expensive time for electricity is at peak time of day. If the utility can save, then they can save money. Also, if we could have multifamily buildings and others participate in clean energy. Thank you so much for joining me today on Power Up Hawaii. I hope that we can continue to talk about these important topics and how they will roll forward with important stakeholders as we move ahead. Mahalo.