Richard Ha says he first started thinking about using alternative energy to power his Hamakua Springs Country Farms in 2008 when a temporary spike in oil prices sent the cost of electricity in Hawaii soaring.
Even when prices settled back down, the thought of getting off of oil stuck with Ha, who introduces himself on his blog as "a Big Island farmer/businessman concerned about peak oil and the nexus of energy, the economy and the environment."
Now that his electricity bill has crept back up — to about $10,000 a month — Ha is finally pulling the trigger. He recently completed a hydroelectric project that will power his entire operation with energy to spare. He’s finalizing an agreement with Hawaii Electric Light Co. to feed the excess electricity into HELCO’s grid at no charge to the utility.
"I’m a banana farmer, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that we need to get off oil. Oil prices have quadrupled over the last 10 years. It creeps up on you, but as a farmer you see how each penny is spent," Ha said.
The 600-acre Hamakua Springs farm, situated on former sugar cane land in Pepeekeo on Hawaii island’s Hamakua Coast, also produces tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and watercress that is distributed to grocery stores and restaurants throughout the state.
The electricity will be produced by a 74-kilowatt hydroelectric generator using water from a flume that had been part of a sugar mill that once occupied the property. A 150-foot elevation drop will produce sufficient water flow to turn a turbine that drives the electrical generator, he said.
A 74-kilowatt generator puts out enough electricity to power about 40 homes using 600 kilowatt-hours per month.
Ha estimates the farm will only use about half of the electricity produced by the system. He said he plans to give the surplus electricity to HELCO.
"We still need to work out the technical details," Ha said, noting that he’s deviating from standard HELCO procedures because he wants to give rather than sell the extra electricity to the utility.
"The flume runs day and night and will generate twice as much electricity as we use. We want to give the excess to the grid, free of charge. Otherwise, it will be wasted," Ha wrote in his blog.
The project’s 74-kilowatt rating, or "nameplate rating," represents the maximum amount of energy it could produce while running at full capacity. The actual energy output over time will be less, depending on factors like water flow and whether it has to be taken out of service for maintenance.
On average, hydroelectric projects across the country produce about 44 percent of their maximum rated output annually, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The EIA refers to that percentage as "capacity factor."
Solar photovoltaic systems, by comparison, have an average capacity factor of about 20 percent, according to the EIA.
Ha has been an outspoken critic of high electric rates on Hawaii island and the state’s dependence on oil for electricity generation. He made headlines in July 2011 when he and three others co-founded a company called Kuokoa with the stated goal of buying Hawaiian Electric Co. and speeding up its transition to renewable energy. However, the effort to buy the utility was abandoned last year after fundraising by officials of Kuokoa fell short.
