VIDEO: Tradewinds CEO supports Hu Honua project
Don Bryan, who plans his own $62 million veneer manufacturing plant at Ookala, testifies for Pepeekeo biomass
Video by David Corrigan
Don Bryan, president of Tradewinds Forest Products, made public his support of the Hu Honua BioEnergy LLC project, planned for the old Pepeekeo power plant, during testimony given at the recent Windward Planning Commission meeting.
Tradewinds Forest Products is constructing a $62 million veneer manufacturing plant at Ookala on the Hamakua Coast. The company plans to use loggers to harvest eucalyptus logs into “high-value visual grade, strength grade and commodity grade veneer using an environmentally sustainable process.”
A recent company press release says that phase two of construction entails building a small cogeneration biomass power plant that will burn mill residuals and provide steam for running the dryers to finish the veneer products.
Tradewinds Forest Products has a purchase power agreement in hand from HELCO as well as a Clear Air Permit issued by the State of Hawaii Department of Health. It has already gone through many of the same regulatory steps that Hu Honua must now go through. The Ookala project has also faced a similar degree of pushback from area residents that the planned Pepeekeo project now faces.
Many companies have been competing for an opportunity to convert the lush Hamakua Coast’s greenery into energy. However, both Hu Honua and Tradewinds see a synergy in their operations, and an opportunity to work well together.
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David,
Please check your facts. Can you name more than three of the “Many companies” that you say, “have been competing for the opportunity to convert the lush Hamakua Coast’s greenery into energy”?
Of course not!
That “lush greenery” is the wrong tree. No one wants them. They were only and are only good for making paper.
Now they are getting past their prime.
If it was such a viable business plan, then why has Mr Bryan had such a hard time finding financing.
He was trying to find investors for more than twelve years! And most of that time was when there were plenty of investors, and plenty of money available.
Oh, and look up what exactly “Co-generation” legally means. Only a very small percentage of his total energy use/generation can be made available for sale to be considered a co-gen facility.
His financial backers are a very large “power” company. That’s ALL they do!
They could care less about making wood products.
They are merely trying to get a foot in the door to a closed market! Period!
John,
Thank you for your comments. Your insight is valued.
To explain the sentence in the article above: “Many companies have been competing for an opportunity to convert the lush Hamakua Coast’s greenery into energy”
At a community meeting held in Honokaa in January 2009, six different companies presented their plans for harvesting the “feedstock” of the Hamakua Coast, and with one exception, the companies all had immediate plans to use the biomass to create either biodesiel or bioenergy.
I’ve resurrected the files under the tag “BioEnergy Meeting 1/14″ at http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/tag/bioenergy-meeting-114 . All six presentations made by the different companies are there.
The meeting was called after the state senate intervened in an increasingly competitive race for feedstock, land use, and power purchase agreements. Residents were growing confused.
The sentence “convert the lush Hamakua greenery” refers to how the six companies were eying all sorts of “feedstock” in addition to the abundant eucalyptus, (i.e. Fuel Alternatives Hawaii talking about growing jatropha curcas.) It is my understanding that all these companies are interested in such a venture on the Hamakua Coast because of existing industry infrastructure, like cane haul roads from the sugar days, and the constant supply of sun and water that will replenish “feedstock” faster than other parts of the world.
Of course, the feasibility of any and all these proposed ventures may be disputed by readers like yourself, which is why I appreciate your viewpoint on the topic.
that is why the lush hamakua coast needs to be our food producing area…..those eucalyptus trees were a bad idea…they kill the soil for years not allowing food production….and hey the 10 volume noise from the tradewinds plant far exceeds any sugar plant noise….from past years….i’m all for using every bit of those trees, i’m just not sure about re-plant on plots not already rendered unusable for food growing…eucalyptus roots kill all the bacteria that is needed to breakdown nutrients in the soil….and the environmental impact studies were never done those eucalyptus tree leaves give off a mist that travels up to a mile high…those droplets of mist catch the rain and dump it before its appointed natural place, changing the rainfall on the island…just ask the coffee farmers in kona who have no rain….and as for don, i’ve talked to him, he was shocked at how much i knew that was not common knowledge…..and then lets talk about his non-exixtent scrubbers for that very toxic glue used in his process, by the way his plant is uphill just above the ocean…..can we say dead fish or better yet very sick people who eat those fish….rosalie, who moved out of ookala….