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Regarding the newly awarded project to build a biofuel generation plant near the Pulehu landfill, the argument for biofuel is that it is carbon neutral so it does not contribute to global warming.
The problem with that is it is still emitting CO2, so it is locking us into current levels rather than reducing CO2 levels. But the bigger problem is that biofuel crops require lots of water and land.
Corn is a common biofuel crop in the U.S. and one acre of corn requires 600,000 gallons of water to grow it to maturity. That one acre of corn will produce about 13 megawatt hours of energy, enough for about two houses for one year.
Those same houses will use about 200,000 gallons of water. So, three times as much water is needed for biofuel energy for a house than is used for its household water.
Water is becoming a contentious resource on Maui and using it to grow biofuel is not a good use of it.
Then there is the land issue. That one acre of biofuel produces each year 13 MWH of energy. But one acre of solar panels will produce about 190 MWH of energy each year. It is far more efficient to use land for solar power than for biofuel crops.
Biofuel does not make sense for Maui. What does make sense for alternative renewable energy is geothermal. After all, we are sitting on a huge volcano and we should be able to tap into some of its energy.
Scott Werden
Haiku