It is easy to imagine sun, sand and surf, and the resort sides of the islands, but Hawaii is becoming what has been referred to as an incubator for technology. This can mean an influx of people seeking homes and/or rentals as they arrive for new jobs and new opportunities.
The United States Naval Facilities Engineering Command recently awarded $4.4 million to a study by Lockheed Martin for involving ocean thermal currents. The conversion facility is located off of the coast of Hawaii. This is a pilot plant devoted to the study of cleaner power with the ocean as the source.
Many Hawaiian homes are shoreline communities. This includes military bases. All could be utilizing clean energy long before many of us have the chance stateside. Military bases could begin clean energy operations, and the amount of energy they use on a daily basis is astounding.
The average electric bill in a home in Hawaii, runs between $100 and $150 a day. Much depends, of course on usage, but even as an average that could be reduced and it becomes an advantage to the renter, homeowner, the retiree, and even the person who comes to work for Lockheed Martin. Not that Hawaiians want an influx of people, but it is an advantage for the people who live and work there.
Electric Cars
Another part of the study involves electric cars. The technology is here. The technology has been around for a long time. It is just a matter of mindset, or weaning people away from gasoline and big engines. Now is the time.
Hawaii might be the benchmark for this technology. Imagine islands with the pristine air that Hawaii enjoyed hundreds of years ago! Not that it isn't pristine today, but it is a step toward improvement.
Tourists will rent electric cars to visit the acres of state parks. They will no longer pollute the roads to and from and perhaps even around and through. The sites remain preserved as they should be and have been for millenniums. Traffic jams on the few highways will not be as polluting. And the list goes on.
Hawaii is like a wonder of the world. There are very few places like it, and it should remain that way. That fact that it could become a breadbasket of technological breakthroughs that saves us and the planet isn't that unusual when you think about it.
Throughout Hawaii's history, people have ventured to the islands. The recent decades bring more and more arriving. The islands hold onto their 25,000 acres within 53 state parks. If they didn't, everywhere you look would be "boxes on the hillside," as the old folk song goes. We learned a lot from Hawaii. There's even more to learn. It is just a matter of time and continuing effort, like the project that's just begun, when it comes to studying ocean currents and how they can turn into clean energy and power. The best, and the rest is yet to come.
