Report Title:

Noi`i o Puna Research Center

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

37

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

Requesting the Natural Energy laboratory of hawaii authority to revive its proposal for the REACTIVATION of the Noi`i o puna research center.

 

 

WHEREAS, geothermal energy has proven to be a viable energy resource, providing approximately thirty per cent of the power for the county of Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, in 1982, the Hawaii Geothermal Project's generation plant and its experimental geothermal well in Puna were successfully producing electricity; and

WHEREAS, the Noi`i o Puna, or Puna Geothermal Research Center, a joint effort between the State of Hawaii and the United States Department of Energy, was built in 1984 for research, demonstration, and commercialization projects that utilize the hot steam available from the Hawaii Geothermal Project's adjacent geothermal wells; and

WHEREAS, the Community Geothermal Technology Program, with participants from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii, and the then Department of Business, Economic Development, was formed in 1985 as a public laboratory at Noi`i o Puna to encourage the use of direct heat and byproducts from the Hawaii Geothermal Project's geothermal well and to support Puna District small businesses; and

WHEREAS, from 1984 through 1989, the Community Geothermal Technology Program awarded funds to grantees whose projects included glass production, cloth dyeing, fruit product processing, lumber drying, and greenhouse bottom heating; and

WHEREAS, although the Community Geothermal Technology Program received widespread community approval, its projects were terminated in 1989 and the Noi`i o Puna facility has been underused or even idle because there was no available heat for direct heat projects after the Hawaii Geothermal Project's plant and well were shut down in December 1989; and

WHEREAS, with the cooperation and support of neighboring commercial geothermal producer, Puna Geothermal Venture, Noi`i o Puna now can develop a system to produce hot potable water for new direct heat projects that will allow the reactivation of Community Geothermal Technology Program; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the Senate concurring, that the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority is requested to revive and update their 1992 Reactivation of the Noi`i o Puna Research Center proposal which includes the installation of a heat exchanger and pipeline to generate waste heat from geothermal reinjection fluids at the Puna Geothermal Venture facility, improvement of the Noi`i o Puna facilities to accommodate expanded Community Geothermal Technology Program operations, and the establishment of direct heat geothermal projects proposed by the community to be conducted under the Community Geothermal Technology Program at Noi`i o Puna; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority is requested to report the status of its Reactivation of the Noi`i o Puna Research Center to the Legislature twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; the Executive Director of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority; the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii; the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics; and Puna Geothermal Venture.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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