I just arrived back from a trip to Maui, HI and it continues to amaze me that they have 7000 acres of sugar cane, producing two crops/year, 90% refined into alcohol on island, over half of the cars on the road are flex fuel and they are importing gasoline from off island. Am I the only person out there that thinks that it just might be better for the island to adopt the Brazilian model?

I’ve spent a fair amount of time on Maui, and if I were they, I’d investigate skipping the carbon model altogether. They have an enormous amount of run-of-river hydro, with their huge elevations and incredible rainfall, as well as ocean thermal at their disposal. I believe that a truly fair-minded look at their energy and transportation scene would yield an attractive return on these renewables and electric transportation.

In fact, one of the dozen or so clean energy investment opportunities that I happen to favor is just perfect for the high head conditions that occur when rain falls in the mountains and runs quickly to the sea.

Though this sounds simple – and mankind has been harnessing that simplicity for thousands of years, it gets tricky now that there are seven billion energy-starved people on this small planet, and we’re desperately looking for sustainable ways of providing that energy.

Indeed, it’s not as easy as it seems. Anytime we insert a device into moving water, we face immediately a variety of issues, both ecological and logistical. I.e., we’re both changing the natural habitat in some ways that are hard to understand completely, and we’re also setting ourselves up to face huge costs associated with maintenance, as devices rust, and encounter things like biofouling, shifting current patterns, dynamic sea- and riverbeds, etc.

Hope you enjoy.

Ocean current energy, a form of hydrokinetics, is one of the often-overlooked flavors of renewables, one that holds a great deal of potential. Low hanging fruit here, it appears, are the large and predictable currents that flow with very little variability over time. The Gulf Stream off the eastern seaboard of the United States comes immediately to mind to us Americans, as it’s what makes the Atlantic warm and enjoyable for summer vacations as far north as the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Lesser known to most of us here in the U.S. is the Mozambique Current in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, between Mozambique and Madagascar.

When I’m in the studio next week, I plan to shoot a short video that discusses various attempts to harness that energy in a cost-effective, ecologically safe manner. I’ve come across the developer of a device that is anchored (not moored) to the ocean floor, and thus can move around within the limits of its tether to find the region of maximum current. I’d like to see this guy succeed; his has one of the best ideas in hydrokinetics I’ve come across to date. If you’re interested, please let me know and I’ll put you in touch.

I’m working on another in our series of renewable energy infographics, to present the basic concepts in a way that’s immediately understandable for newcomers to the subject.  My current project is writing up “The Pros and Cons of Renewables.” The main point: all forms of energy, clean or dirty, come with a certain financial and ecological cost.

One of the main challenges associated with the migration to “new energy” is infrastructure, as unfortunately, renewable resources tend to exist far from our population centers, which requires an expensive build-out of our electrical grid. This article on Hydrokinetics in Alaska is a case in point. They have 350,000 miles of roaring rivers and tides that are incredible. Southern California, whose population is 40 times that of Alaska, is as hungry for those resources as a bear, fresh out of hibernation, fishing for a salmon.

I’m working on another in our series of renewable energy infographics, illuminating the basic concepts in a way that’s immediately understandable for people who may be new to the subject. The piece I’m writing now on “The Pros and Cons of Renewables,” points out that, while there is a lot to like about clean energy, there is no “free lunch” here; everything comes with a certain financial and ecological cost.

A point some people miss is that certain forms of renewable energy are limited in their availability. For example, where there is, for all intents and purposes, an infinite amount of solar energy, other forms, e.g., run-of river-hydro, exist only in limited supply.

Does this scale to the point that it can replace terawatts of fossil fuels? Nope. But in the right conditions, it’s a wonderful solution, and thus, in my opinion, the company represents an interesting investment opportunity.

But what struck me hardest about our talk was Paul’s background; he came to this place from many years as a commercial fisherman, a business he had pursued until he had a realization. “It wasn’t sustainable,” he told me, without any need to elaborate. Of course, one has to like anyone who makes a career change because he perceives that the path of his life’s work is unsustainable.

But perhaps the neatest aspect of our talk came clear when Paul said, “I came to know those currents very well, like the Gulf Stream and the Mozambique Current (between Madagascar and Mozambique). I had been fighting them for years.” That’s cool, I thought to myself; he’s gone from fighting something to turning it into an assistant; he’s turned an enemy into a friend. May we all be so lucky.

In this interview, I discuss a radical new approach to run-of-river hydrokinetics where the water is falling far over a short distance, e.g., a waterfall. The company’s solution is extremely straightforward and would be easy for a wily competitor to steal; it is for this reason that they play their cards very close to their vests, and have gone to an almost unimaginable extent to patent their IP internationally. Will anyone win here – besides the patent attorneys, that is? I believe so.

There are many sites around the world where this solution is perfect, and will produce totally clean power, 24/7/365 at an incredibly attractive rate in terms of levelized cost of energy (LCOE), meaning the average cost per kilowatt-hour when all factors are taken into consideration: the construction, the fuel, operations and maintenance, and decommissioning.