Photo Source: TreeHugger

Taxes on oil, some estates and cigarettes would go up in Hawaii under bills approved by the House and Senate on Wednesday.

Even if Gov. Linda Lingle vetoes these tax hikes, the Legislature left itself enough time to override her before session adjourns at the end of the month.

The oil tax increase would cost residents an estimated $15 to $20 a year, including an additional 2 or 3 cents per gallon of gasoline and higher power bills. The $22 million raised would primarily go toward the state’s general fund, with some money set aside for renewable energy programs.

The cigarette tax charges smokers 1 cent more per cigarette starting in July. Combined with a separate 1 cent cigarette tax previously approved, a pack would cost 40 cents more. The measure would generate about $10 million a year.

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Source: The New York Times
Photo Source: TreeHugger

How do you make solar thermal technology economical at a small scale?

In Hawaii, a power developer will soon find out if earth and sky mix. Pacific Light & Power will build a 10-megawatt solar thermal plant that will combine a trough solar collector from Spain’s Albiasa with a turbine traditionally used in geothermal systems.

Why? Ten megawatts is unusually small for a solar thermal field. BrightSource Energy, by contrast, wants to build one in California that will produce 396 megawatts of power.

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Source: Greentech Media