The Infallible Power Beneath Us: Geothermal A Hot Topic
Photo of Floyd McCoy PhD by Madeline Henningsen
The Infallible Power Beneath Us: Geothermal a Hot Topic
By Madeline Henningsen,
Interview with Dr. Floyd McCoy - Paraphrased for conciseness.
Wind, solar, and wave energy can be seen all around Hawaii, but are we truly doing the best we can to harness the earth’s power to shift from harmful, finite fossil fuels to infinite, renewable green energy? Dr. Floyd McCoy certainly doesn’t think so, one of the first comments during our conversation was: “It is just plain stupid that we are not using geothermal energy.”
He goes on to describe that the original technology for geothermal was really bad, when the system would break down it would leak harmful sulfur gases and many people got very sick because of this. However, that technology is long gone… but that idea persists causing many in the community to be reluctant to this shift. “The important thing with geothermal is to tell people it’s a closed system, it comes out of the ground and it never leaves, there are no leaks, it is not contaminated by anything else. The water comes out of the ground, supplies energy, and then goes right back into the ground.” It may sound unnerving to drill into the earth’s crust, for instance, what would happen if you drilled into an active magma chamber? “Magma would go into the pipe and clog it. It doesn’t cause an eruption, nothing horrible happens.” The fact that we are not using geothermal energy to its potential here may just be due to a lack of understanding – people can see solar panels, you can see wind turbines, and somewhat understand how the energy is being harnessed, geothermal isn’t as easy to grasp. This points to the desperate need for community outreach and education to address concerns and provide the insight into what geothermal really is and what it could do for our world.
According to Dr. McCoy, Puna on the Big Island is one of the locations that geothermal energy could be tapped into. “Embedded into the Native Hawaiian belief system is that Pele, goddess of fire and volcanoes who destroys and builds new land, resides in Halema`uma`u Crater, right by Puna. The belief is that by drilling into the land there, you are drilling into Pele’s body. Dr. Don Thomas gave a public talk at Manoa on geothermal energy and its potential, the whole audience was there to protest saying – “you are damaging Pele,” “you are disturbing the primordial forest in Puna that had never been penetrated before” ultimately leading to the end of his presentation.
McCoy said part of the key means of explaining how geothermal might be considered in a positive light, is to reframe the way Native Hawaiian and other ethnic groups in Hawaii think about geothermal energy. Rather than presenting geothermal drilling as being something that would be “hurting Pele” one could think of the energy provided from the heat of the volcanos as a gift from Pele. There has been more acceptance he says, with this way of thinking.
Every island has geothermal potential, every island is a volcano that will erupt again. The presence of hot springs indicates potential for geothermal energy. Here on Oahu, in Kaka’ako they began building the medical school and they drilled down to capture the cold water to circulate it through the buildings for air conditioning BUT they drilled down and it was hot water. There is still heat under the Ko’olau mountain range that could be used for geothermal energy. In Hawaii Kai, there is a hot spot that was covered with pavement to create a park – the basketball court is sometimes too hot to play. This was brought up in a class McCoy was teaching at UH Manoa and a student in the class talked about how her grandmother used to go there to cook food prior to the development that is Hawaii Kai as we know it today. There is evidence of hot springs on Lanai, Molokai, Maui, and the Big Island. This is all linked to geothermal and the potential for it to be used in Hawaii. “If you can’t find a hot spring, keep drilling” – the heat from volcanism is providing the energy. It’s an infallible source of energy for us.
McCoy prefers geothermal energy to wind. He explains, “You put up a big turbine, someone had to go mine the iron ore, take it to the factory, it requires energy to melt the metal, energy to transport it everywhere - it takes a lot of energy to produce one single wind turbine. Then you need to transport it to the site and it takes energy to get it up. It has around a 20-year lifetime and then it breaks and is “recycled” which also takes energy. You do not get back the energy that it takes to get it up and running” There is machinery cost for geothermal too and parts that would break and need to be replaced as well but at a much lesser extent and the energy yield far outweighs the cost and maintenance required.
There is no wind today, the sky is filled with clouds, and from my experience with solar power at my house it has been a week of very cold showers with the weather we have been having lately but with geothermal it is always there and it is always hot. And we’re finding out it’s all over the planet, if you drill deep enough it is there. With the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) they drill into the mantle, it is possible to drill deep enough from any location. The USGS produces maps of the geothermal potential of the US and the entire world, they’ve been researched and are publicly available making them theoretically easy to tap into since the ideal locations are public knowledge.: “It’s nuts that we aren’t doing it.” We can cover the landscape with solar panels and wind turbines, but the cost and loss of agricultural and natural lands may outweigh the pros. Native Hawaiians have been cooking food with the heat provided by the earth for many, many years on these islands without the advanced drilling technology that is present today, it is clear we are not doing everything possible to move away from fossil fuels when geothermal is so accessible to us. The heat is right below us; we are a part of a chain of volcanoes that are ready and able to supply the energy needed to rid us of our dependence on fossil fuels, all we have to do is harness it.
