Column: With Honua Ola Bioenergy, there will be more forests, trees

In a recent opinion piece, Henry Curtis and Dylan Ramos featured a statement on the importance of forests in mitigating climate change (“Burn some biomass to generate electricity — but not trees,” Island Voices, Star-Advertiser, Feb. 1). In that case, they should support the Honua Ola Bioenergy project, as it will reduce greenhouse emissions and be the first energy project in the state to be carbon negative.

Honua Ola has committed in its filings to the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to plant or grow more trees than are harvested for use at its facility. Consequently, the project will reduce more greenhouse gas than it emits, making it carbon negative and resulting in more trees than currently exist.

The claim that Honua Ola will emit CO2 at twice the rate of the existing fossil fuel plants it can replace, is false. Honua Ola is already growing 10,000-plus acres of eucalyptus trees and has signed an agreement to plant more than 3 million native trees when the project is approved. The CO2 absorbed by these trees, as well as additional future trees Hu Honua has committed to grow, will more than offset the greenhouse gas the facility emits, making Honua Ola the state’s first carbon negative renewable energy project.

Also, old-growth natural forests (100-150 years old) should not be confused with trees grown as commercial crops. The eucalyptus trees to be used by Honua Ola are a plantation crop that was always intended to be harvested. I know because I planted them.

Eucalyptus crops can be harvested at five to seven years of growth, a very short rotation for a tree crop. Economic and political circumstances transpired to prevent the original harvest, and the trees are now more than 20 years old and long overdue for harvesting.

Concerns expressed about tree roots decomposing and releasing carbon are unfounded in the case of eucalyptus, which grows from the stumps (coppice) of trees that have been harvested. The roots don’t die and decompose but continue to live and nourish the growth of new trees from the coppice, all the while locking in carbon.

As for the statement that commercial biomass for producing electrical power is typically made by cutting down a forest to produce wood pellets — this is not what Honua Ola will do. It will harvest local plantation crops, not cut down a natural forest. The harvested crops will be used for power production.

Importantly, Honua Ola will also help to eradicate undesirable invasive species, including albizia and strawberry guava by using them as feedstock for electrical generation, as well as remove any greenhouse gas emissions from these invasive species through the planting and growing initiatives, which are part of its carbon negative commitment.

In addition, Honua Ola is equipped with state-of-the-art emissions control equipment that is much more effective than the emissions control systems used by Hawaii Island’s fossil fuel plants and most other biomass plants.

This information can be found in Honua Ola’s filings to the state PUC. The supporting data comes from the analysis conducted by ERM, the largest global sustainability consultancy, as well as the analysis done for Hawaiian Electric by Ramboll US Consulting, Inc. These studies concluded Honua Ola would reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Honua Ola’s always-on power is designed to replace energy from existing fossil fuel plants. Once Honua Ola is online, Hawaiian Electric will be able to permanently retire its older fossil fuel plants, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Wind and solar cannot do this.

I agree that we must move as quickly as possible to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources. Because solar and wind, even with batteries, only operate part of the time, replacing fossil fuel plants with 24/7 biomass power makes the most sense and will maintain Hawaii’s place as a national leader in clean renewable energy. We really need all renewables online to meet our goals.

Guy Cellier, CEO of The Nursery Inc., is the forest manager for CN Renewable Resources, a Honua Ola Bioenergy affiliate.