Honua Ola Will Use Albizia to Generate Renewable Energy
Eucalyptus make up the lion’s share of trees in Hawaii’s commercially managed forests, and the wood chips from this commercial crop will be used by Honua Ola Bioenergy as feedstock to generate clean renewable energy to replace fossil fuel energy coming from oil-fired power plants. Replacing fossil fuel energy with renewable energy is the only way the state can achieve its goal of 100% renewable energy on every island grid by 2045.
In addition to using commercially available eucalyptus, Honua Ola will also accept invasive albizia trees that the community wishes to get rid of. These fast-growing and fast-decaying trees not only crowd out native species, but also cause other serious problems such as falling on power lines, roadways, and homes, threatening the health and safety of residents. Using albizia to generate renewable energy, turns a problem into a benefit. This approach has proven to be beneficial on Kauai where the Green Energy Team’s 6.7-megawatt (MW) biomass facility regularly converts woodchips from albizia trees into renewable energy.
By using both eucalyptus and albizia, Honua Ola is making use of abundant commercially available eucalyptus that has sat idle for too long, and also gets rid of pesky albizia. The harvesting of eucalyptus also helps to create a new wood-product industry by using certain high-value portions of the tree. Wood-product manufacturing requires those parts of the tree suitable for use in products like furniture, veneer, and flooring. The local economy benefits the most by using the whole tree.
Sawmills and wood-product manufacturing use a smaller portion of the tree that is of high quality. Honua Ola plans to utilize the remaining larger portion of the tree that is of low-grade quality to make wood chips to use as fuel for the renewable biomass power plant. Without Honua Ola, a forestry industry and wood-product manufacturing which only uses a smaller portion of the tree would not be economically viable.
Is Honua Ola Carbon Neutral?
Honua Ola has committed to planting more trees than it harvests and uses, so the greenhouse gas emitted during energy production will be absorbed by new trees being planted/grown in order to reach carbon neutral emissions. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency views biomass as carbon-neutral if the feedstock comes from a managed forest.
Honua Ola was designed to replace existing fossil fuel plants, a significant source of greenhouse gas in Hawaii County. When Honua Ola comes online, Hawaiian Electric will be able to reduce and/or retire its fossil fuel plants, which will further reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.
Honua Ola Bioenergy’s operations will also be in compliance with applicable environmental standards of the Department of Health, Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Occupational Safety and Health Agency, as well as meeting Hawaii County requirements.
For more information about Honua Ola’s practices, here are our FAQs