Lee Cataluna: Now we have green versus green

A bill that would have allowed large-scale solar energy projects to be put on prime agricultural lands died in the state Senate this week, but this doesn’t seem to be an issue that is going to go away.

House Bill 593 would have allowed solar farms on class-A farmlands on Oahu, including lands that are being used to grow food crops. Supporters pointed to Hawaii’s goal of reaching 100% renewable energy. Detractors pointed to Hawaii’s goal of reaching food sustainability. Stand back when the green people are beefing with each other. Of course, “green” also means money, but in order for anything to be sustainable, it has to make financial sense, too.

This debate brings to light some inconvenient truths that must be taken into account when planning for Hawaii’s Eden-like, totally pono, high-tech but low-impact future.

First is that land is precious in an island state, especially on crowded Oahu. Everybody wants a piece of the best stuff, and if all the land is taken up or spoken for, you can’t just move a project few hundred miles into the desert or the prairie. There will always be competing interests to put the best projects on the best lands.

Currently, solar projects take up a lot of land. That will continue to be a problem for islands that would like to have renewable energy but also grow their own food. Maybe technological advances will reduce the acreage needed to yield sufficient power from the sun, and a transformation will happen similar to that of computers, which used to take up whole buildings but now fit comfortably into hand-held phones. Maybe that’ll happen soon.

Second, the idyllic version of farming is worlds away from the hard reality of farming. Even if it’s cruelty-free, organic, endemic, artisanal and whatever sweet marketing buzzword is currently trending, farming is still a business, and no farm can keep going on wholesome adjectives and good intentions. If the best ag lands can make more money as a solar farm than a vegetable farm, is that necessarily a bad thing or simply a practical thing? Is it possible to have both? Without this bill, a mix of food crops and solar panels can’t even be considered on the same farmland.

It’s going to come up again. There are going to be competing interests, competing uses, competing ideas of what is green and what is best and what is practical for Hawaii. These arguments are not going to always shape up as good green versus bad corporate. More often they’re going to be complicated. Hawaii has limited land and limited resources. Islands can’t have everything, and even the most amazing technology carries with it its own trade-offs.

Now that we’ve passed all of these bills and resolutions requiring 100% clean, carbon-free, locally sourced, low-priced everything, now comes the hard part where we actually have to make it work.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.