Hydroelectricity May Be Coming To the U.S. Territories in the Southern Pacific

I recently learned that a friend’s family owns a great deal of land on one of the Pacific islands owned by the U.S. that includes a huge reservoir of water high in the mountains.  I asked, “Don’t you folks pay a fortune for electricity, and isn’t it dirtier than hell, probably imported bunker diesel? Wouldn’t some renewable energy solution be very valuable?” Yes, yes, and yes.

I told him, “It sounds like your country could be swimming in hydroelectric energy, pun intended.  If you tell me the annual rainfall that is in the watershed surrounding the reservoir and how high it is above sea level, I’ll tell you how much money we’re talking about. The weight of the water times the height (subtracting out efficiency losses, evaporation and absorption) is the number of kWhrs (@0.55!!) per year.

A unique feature of this project is that the politics associated with it are favorable, by virtue of the fact that a prominent family owns the land.  Until now, everywhere on this Earth, my efforts to assemble renewable energy projects have been impeded by vested interests.

Do you think Bermuda is in love with the soot that comes out of the 165 MW diesel plants?  No.  But just try to replace them with something that competes favorably, both economically and ecologically. Somebody’s going to make you an offer you can’t refuse, followed, if you don’t get the message, by your waking up one morning to find a horse head in your bed.

Looking forward to running the numbers–and not constantly looking over my shoulder.