On this episode we talk to Van Matsushige of Sopogy and Peter Rosegg of Hawaiian Electric Company. Both are involved with companies shaping Hawaii’s evolving energy landscape, one a solar energy provider and the other Hawaii’s primary electric utility.
In the News…
- Google has said it invested $10.25 million to develop geothermal-energy technology aimed at extracting steam deep inside the earth to generate more electricity. The search giant’s investment arm, Google.org, has committed $6.25 million to AltaRock Energy, $4 million to Potter Drilling and $489,521 to the Southern Methodist University Geothermal Lab.
- Students on Molokai have just received the first of 100 Apple laptops being distributed for “Project OHANA,”a program aimed at putting technology and connectivity into the hands and homes of students in rural communities in Maui county. Project OHANA — or Online Health and Academic Network Access — will ultimately distribute 100 laptops to students of Maui Community College, and it’s hoped that the computers will be used both by the students and their families.
- With all the stories about sea faring vessels making their way across the Pacific propelled by low-carbon footprint methods like wind and rowing here is a land vessel going in the opposite direction. Laurel White has left her home in Paia, Maui in order to stage a North American environmental green energy tour in what she is calling her EcoVan.
- Hollywood has built a fortune on the fear of meteors striking the Earth, wreaking “Armageddon” on the planet, but such disasters are not solely the realm of science fiction. There are scientists around the world dedicated to identifying “near Earth objects” or NEOs, and one of the most impressive efforts is being mounted here in Hawaii. It’s called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, and the first of four telescopes is already scanning the skies. But as it turns out, STORING the massive volume of data involved requires a serious database.
- Muxtape, the love-child of the Internet and 80s cassette mix tapes, has had its plug pulled by the Recording Industry Association of America. If you go to muxtape.com you will be greeted with a brief statement that Muxtape will be “unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.”
- This week’s song pick come from Muxtape before getting shut down. Here’s We Were Promised Jetpacks and their song Moving Clocks Run Slow.