Hawaii integrated energy assessment : volume I overview

The Hawaii Integrated Energy Assessment (HIEA) is designed to aid decision makers in Hawaii as they plan the transition from nearly total dependence upon oil to a mix of renewable, indigenous energy resources during the next 25 years. Recognition that an integrated assessment of Hawaii's energy future would be useful during this transition grew out of discussions between the State of Hawaii Department of Planning and Economic Development (DPED) and the San Francisco Operations Office of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). Subsequently commissioned by DOE with funding from its Office of Solar Strategy, Analysis and Integration, and the Office of Resource Applications, with further assistance from the State of Hawaii, this study was undertaken as a collaborative effort by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and DPED. This assessment is intended to be as realistic as possible in its analysis of the prospects for commercial evolution of the energy technologies that are appropriate for Hawaii and in its examination of the many-faceted implications of developing those technologies. As a result, the HIEA conclusions may be more restrained than those with a more optimistic range of opinions might expect. This report offers a series of views of possible future events. Like any other look into the future, it becomes more tenuous the farther it reaches. It is not intended as a definitive evaluation of the alternate energy technologies it considers nor as a precise forecast of things to come. The basic analytical models used in the assessment, however, will continue to be useful tools if updated data are introduced over the years. The transition to indigenous energy resources will call for a sequence of aggressive, informed decisions as the real future unfolds. It is hoped that the information presented in the seven volumes of the HIEA report will provide a sound basis for these decisions. The many experts from diverse fields and institutions who participated in these studies are acknowledged in the appropriate volumes. We commemorate here the late Dr. Eugene M. Grabbe, former Manager of the DPED's State Center for Science Policy and Technology Assessment, for his key role in initiating the project and guiding its earliest work.This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Assistant Secretary for Conservation and Solar Energy, Office of Solar Strategy, Analysis and Integration, and the Assistant Secretary for Resource Applications, under Contract No. W-740S-ENG-48 with the University of California and under Grant No. EP-78-G-03-2100 with the Department of Planning and Economic Development, State of Hawaii