Last year, the islands of Hawai’i were in the news for a catastrophic fire on the island of Maui. In the aftermath, some focus was on grasses that could/should have been removed by a biomass company that was part of a larger power purchase agreement that was cancelled by the state’s large utility company.
Community finance encompasses the way in which we plan to finance the future of energy and in this edition, we look at this legal dispute between renewable energy providers and monopolistic entities as an example of what is to be expected in the future as the energy transition continues.
Our communities need to balance reliance on fossil fuels and the infrastructure in place with thoughtful plans for the future. Investors in energy proposals and the large utilities companies that make them possible will be watching this case and others.