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Do you think the increase in price means renewable energy can get a bigger foothold?

Solar is already so prevalent on Oahu that they have grid frequency excursions that would be unimaginable on the mainland.

Once grid-scale energy storage gets cheaper Hawaii will have one of the cleanest energy grids on Earth. Until then they have to complement their solar production with peaker turbines that typically burn diesel.

Why can't Hawaii use geothermal energy?

Hawaii does have a geothermal plant. It got covered in lava during a 2018 eruption and took two years to dig back out. Not sure if that's a freak incident or ill portent for its viability in Hawaii. Pre-eruption it supplied about 10% of the state's electricity.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puna_Geothermal_Venture

Hawaii (the island) can and does, but most of Hawaii (the state)'s electric demand is on Oahu where they haven't found any geothermal that's viable for making power.

[0] https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/clean-energy-hawaii/our-cle...

Given the history of how Hawaii policy gets shaped, probably not. But thinking optimistically, hopefully!

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