HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-08-31 Bob Douglas Support TestimonyFrom:
To: Planning WPC Testimony
Subject: Support Bill 170
Date: Monday, August 31, 2026 6:08:57 PM
Aloha Members of the Windward Planning Commission,
My name is Bob Douglas, and I am a retired computer hardware engineer. I worked for both Sun Microsystems and
Oracle on large-scale computer systems. From that experience, I am deeply concerned about the prospect of locating
a major data center on Hawaiʻi Island.
Data centers have two unavoidable characteristics: they consume enormous amounts of electricity and they generate
enormous amounts of heat. We dealt constantly with both problems in the computer industry. The faster and denser
the computing equipment becomes, the greater these challenges become.
I am not opposed to technology. I spent my career helping develop it. As an engineer, I believe technological
problems can ultimately be solved. But that does not mean every technology belongs in every location.
I seriously question whether Hawaiʻi Island is an appropriate location for a large data center at all.
The fundamental issue is geography. We live on an isolated island with finite infrastructure, finite generating
capacity, fragile natural resources and an extraordinarily valuable marine environment. A data center designed to
serve computing demands far beyond Hawaiʻi would effectively import an enormous industrial demand for
electricity and cooling onto an island whose residents receive little corresponding benefit.
There are two issues that particularly concern me.
1. Hawaiʻi Island’s electrical grid
Our electrical system is an isolated island grid. We cannot draw additional electricity from neighboring states when
demand exceeds local generation.
A large data center could introduce an enormous new continuous electrical load. Unlike most businesses, data
centers operate around the clock.
That raises a question the Commission should insist be answered in very specific terms:
Where, exactly, will all of that additional electricity come from?
If the answer includes increased fossil-fuel generation—even indirectly—then Hawaiʻi residents and our
environment will bear the consequences of powering computing infrastructure whose primary purpose may have
little to do with the needs of this island.
Hawaiʻi is trying to move away from imported petroleum and other carbon-intensive energy sources. Adding an
enormous new industrial electrical load before adequate new renewable generation and storage exist risks moving us
in precisely the wrong direction.
There is also the question of who ultimately pays for generating, transmission and grid improvements necessary to
support such a facility. Those costs must not be shifted, directly or indirectly, onto Hawaiʻi Island ratepayers.
2. What happens to the heat?
This is basic physics.
Nearly all of the electrical energy consumed by computing equipment eventually becomes heat. A large data center
therefore does not merely consume enormous amounts of electricity; it becomes an enormous, continuous heat
source.
That heat has to go somewhere.
On Hawaiʻi Island, I am particularly concerned about any proposal involving seawater, groundwater, injection wells, ocean thermal exchange or another cooling system that could ultimately transfer waste heat into our coastal environment.
Our coral reefs are already experiencing extraordinary stress from increasing ocean temperatures. Against that background, deliberately introducing another significant thermal load into the marine environment should face an extraordinarily high burden of proof.
The Commission should require disclosure of the facility’s maximum electrical consumption, projected annual energy consumption, complete cooling methodology, water consumption, heat rejection, intake and discharge temperatures, discharge locations, effects on groundwater and coastal waters, backup cooling systems, emergency operating conditions, and cumulative environmental impacts.
Those analyses should not simply come from consultants retained by the developer. The critical assumptions and conclusions should be independently reviewed.
But I would ask the Commission to consider an even more fundamental question before getting lost in the technical details:
Why should a major data center be located on Hawaiʻi Island in the first place?
On the mainland, data centers can be located near massive interconnected electrical grids, large renewable-energy resources and industrial infrastructure specifically designed to accommodate them.
Hawaiʻi Island has none of those advantages at comparable scale.
What we do have are limited island resources, extremely high energy costs, an isolated electrical grid, vulnerable coastal ecosystems and coral reefs that are already under environmental stress.
The question therefore should not be merely whether the developer can satisfy the minimum requirements necessary to obtain permits.
The question should be whether placing this type of industrial facility here is in the long-term public interest of Hawaiʻi Island.
I am not convinced that it is.
If extraordinary claims are made about renewable power, negligible environmental impact, innovative cooling or benefits to our community, those claims should be demonstrated with engineering data—not promises—and made enforceable conditions of any approval.
The burden of proof belongs with the applicant, not with the community.
Hawaiʻi Island should not become an environmental test bed for the world’s race to build ever-larger computing infrastructure. Nor should our residents, our electrical grid, our groundwater, our coastline or our reefs bear costs generated by that race.
Some technologies may be valuable and still be inappropriate for a particular place.
I believe the Commission should begin by asking whether a large-scale data center belongs on Hawaiʻi Island at all.
Mahalo for your consideration.
Bob Douglas
danhieux18@icloud.com Instagram.com/danhieux 808 333-0402