Its been a little while since I posted anything here so thought I would tell you all what Im up too before the media breaks it. YOu heard it here first. While I think OTEC is the best long term solution for our future power needs, I could not generate enough support for it through the Senate or Department of Energy and the banks werent comfortable with the size of the loan we would need to self fund ($400m). So, I went with plan B. I divided our energy efforts into two strategies, one the popular wind and solar (IM not a big fan of solar) and Base Load Geothermal. Solar is ok when you dont have any other options or someone else is paying for it. But its not really a strong economic choice otherwise. However, American Samoa already owns enough Solar panels to power all of the islands of Manua 100 percent. Although there is storage logistics issues but we are working on that. So since base load power source like Geothermal would be way to expensive to deploy in Manua, putting our solar effort there made perfect sense. Now Tutuila power grid is large enough to go after a large base load solution like OTEC or Geothermal. Since I couldnt get support for OTEC, I made a move "all in" for geothermal support and got it. Department of Interior has given us a grant for $640k USD to fund phase 1 and phase 2 of our geothermal exploration. Phase 1 is the geological study done by top geologist remotely and gives us a hypothetical drill solution. Phase 2 brings those geologists here to confirm their scientific theories and tell us where to drill. Once we have 3 plausible drill solutions, we will need to request additional funding of about $3m. This will give us about 18,000 ft worth of drilling capability. Based on our in house geo thermal adviser on the ASREC board, we feel confident that good steam product can be found at the 3000ft mark. But we are budgeting to do 3 slim holes at 6000 ft to give us the best chance to hit product. We are told by geological experts that American Samoa has a high probability for Geothermal resource. What this means if we hit what we are looking for, American Samoa "Tutuila" can expect to be nearly diesel free in its power generation by end of 2016 or close to it. We have Manua off diesel in about the same timeline. I chair the American Samoa Renewable Energy Committee (ASREC) which is staffed with some amazing people. I asked them to support this energy initiative and they brought it all together. I can take some credit for the idea. But all the credit must go to the ASREC team who took an idea and made it a reality. They are amazingly capable people whom I can not say enough about!!! We will be publishing in the next two weeks the American Samoa Strategic Plan and the Energy Action Plan. The Action Plan is already complete and being Published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory funded by the Interior. This is truly an exciting time to be part of the American Samoa Energy Program. I dont really know what the Territorial Energy Office did for the past 33 years. But I know what its doing today. Its positioned to change the lives of the citizens here in a very positive way. The public can thank Gov Lolo Moliga for having the confidence in me to move this initiative forward and thank Utu Abe Malae for believing that it could be done and making the impossible possible. If I accomplish nothing more in my entire Government career, I would be satisfied with what I had a part in. (IE: it could be a real short career as Im not yet confirmed by the Senate), But now that the wheels are in motion for American Samoa Energy Independence worth about $30m a year back into the economy, Id like to attack one more thing. The Futiga land fill. I think ASPA is working on slowing down the land fill issue with a new recycling effort and I would like to reduce the land fill with a waste to energy program. If the Senate gives me enough time, I will get this under way soon. Well, thats my facebook report to friends and family and those her in American Samoa who have joined my page over the past year. If your the media, please dont cut and paste my face book. I will issue a press release most likely this coming week. If you respect my wishes on this, I will be very happy to sit down with you and answer questions and keep you informed. Just please dont ask me why this hasnt been done years ago. Because I dont have an answer for that. LOL>I hope that isnt too much to ask.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 22:06:59 +0000