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Comment by wartron | Hacker News Reader

Why is geothermal not more prominent?

Apparently you can have too much geothermal. Their first plant got knocked offline by the 2018 eruption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puna_Geothermal_Venture

There's also this bit:

> Additional concerns and opposition to the plant have been raised by Native Hawaiians, who view all forms of volcanic activity as manifestations of the goddess Pele. To the Native Hawaiians who revere Pele, geothermal wells and energy production are a desecration of her body and spirit.

But no sun or wind gods that we need to worry about?

Probably you don't drill into sun or wind, thus not producingj any unholy disturbance to the relevant deities.

Wind turbines do locally screw with the wind, that's why you can't put them too close to each other. But it's temporary and goes away when the turbine get decommissioned, so maybe that's the difference. Or maybe the wind is traditionally meant to be harnessed (boats) but volcanic energy is not?

It is used on the Big Island, which is the newest island. Unfortunately most people live on the older islands, which aren't above the volcanic hotspot anymore. And the islands are far enough apart that they all have their own independent electrical grids.

Even if they ain't directly on the hot spot, couldn't they still be close enough to it for there to be a useful temperature differential?

There were attempts to use the ocean for a heat sorce/sink for downtown AC.

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