Photo: Pixabay | Pexels
"There's a Hawaiian saying -- He Wa'a He Moku, He Moku He Wa'a -- 'the canoe is an island, and the island is a canoe,'" says Todd Yamashita, president of Ho'ahu Energy Cooperative,."We only have what we have, and that's all we have." As the 7,000 residents of Moloka'i face high prices for electricity, 41 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the US average of 13 cents, they look more toward renewable and decentralized sources of energy. The Ho'ahu Energy Cooperative plans to own solar panels and battery storage and distribute energy to Hawaiian Electric, the state's main energy utility. In New Mexico, the tribal nation of Picuris Pueblo built a 1-megawatt solar power system to meet 100 percent of daytime energy use with the help of funds from the Department of Energy. Picuris partnered with Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in this renewable energy project in 2018, with the cooperative reducing purchases of coal energy from their supplier, Four Corners, by 90 percent in 2016 to 40 percent in 2021.
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