Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles The Garden Island will publish this week on candidates for the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative Board of Directors. LIHUE — Carol Bain says she is running for another term
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles The Garden Island will publish this week on candidates for the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative Board of Directors.
LIHUE — Carol Bain says she is running for another term on the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative Board of Directors because she wants to see certain projects come to fruition.
The project she is most excited about is the Westside Pumped Storage Project, which is a pumped storage hydro system that will use the force of water moving downhill as an alternate source for energy.
“The program will use an upper storage pond connected by a 5-mile-long buried steel pipeline to a lower pond,” she said. “During the day, inexpensive solar power would be used to push the water uphill to the storage pond. At night, when demand for electricity is at its peak, the water would be released, flowing downhill through the pipe to turn a turbine and generate electricity.”
Those ponds, which are located in Kokee, will be able to generate enough power to provide electricity for the whole island, she said.
“They will help balance out nighttime electric use and reduce fossil fuels at night,” she said. “It’s a great resource for the island.”
If the project pans out, it will provide Kauai with an alternative energy source for 100 years, Bain added.
It is also an alternative many states aren’t privy to, she said.
“Many states don’t have ponds high up in the mountains, but we have an opportunity here,” she said.
The Westside Pumped Storage Project has been tossed around the KIUC Board for about five years.
“I’d be gratified to see the project be put in place in the next three years,” Bain said. “I want to be able to see it through and promote it.”
Bain said the use of solar-generated power has increased around the island since she was elected to the board in 2007.
“Just being part of a team that has seen such a progress in renewables on the island is rewarding,” she said.
Bain said she wanted to be a part of KIUC because it allows local people to take an active interest in their community.
“They have more control over their board and rates,” she said. “I liked the idea of an elected group of local people who love and care about the island, rather than a company being controlled by an investor who lives elsewhere.”
Bain, 64, moved to Kauai in 1985. She resides in Puhi, and retired as a communication and journalism professor at Kauai Community College.
“I plan to live here for the rest of my life; I see Kauai as my home,” she said.
In addition to focusing on long-term goals, Bain also plans to emphasize the importance of diversity in alternative energy sources.
“We don’t want to be just dependent on fossil fuels and solar power. We need to have other sources, whether is’s hydro or bio,” she said.
She also plans on working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The two go hand in hand, she said.
“We need to burn less fossil fuels. Every time we use solar, that’s less diesel,” she said. “And every time we generate electricity from renewable energy sources, we’re not producing carbon dioxide.”
There is also a practical reason to turn to renewable sources of energy, she said.
“Since we’re isolated in the Pacific, the more we use the resources the island is blessed with, the more we control the cost of fuel,” Bain said.
