http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/science/earth/15hawaii.html?ref=business
Hawaii is becoming America's living laboratory to test sustainable energy sources. Taking advantage of its brilliant natural resources, they are able to explore waves, wind, solar panels, and biomass as sources to generate electricity. The vice president of the Hawaiian Electricity Company claimed that they would have to embrace renewable energy sources even without the consideration of global warming.
1.5 External Environment: PEST analysis
We can analyze the company's decision to exploit green energy sources by using the PEST analysis.
+ is opportunity
- is threat
Political:
- Hawaii's governor has resolved to throw off the yoke of oil dependence and harness the state’s potential (+)
- Agreement reached with federal government (+)
Economic:
- Heavy reliance on imported oil has proved economically perilous (+)
- Hard to attract developers because renewable energy projects are expensive (-)
Social:
- New solutions to global warming (+)
- Agreement reached with majority of local community (+)
- Pressure group of locals found geothermal energy projects sacrilegious (-)
- May take many years to see the benefits (-)
Technological:
- Difficulties in transferring the power to people (-)
- Solar power and wind power sources are not as efficient as fossil fuel (-)
Although there are as many threats as there are opportunities, there is a necessity to develop renewable resources as soon as possible. Ted Peck, the point man for the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative said it, "We don’t have anywhere else to go." USA is desperate for more ways of generating power, so they will do it despite of the heavy costs, and technological difficulties. Nevertheless, developing green energy sources is beneficial from both financial and ethical viewpoints. Fossil fuel is running out rapidly, and sooner or later we will have to rely on new energy. It is to the advantage of the power companies to start experimenting with these new technologies as soon as possible. It is also an ethical decision, because it encourages other firms to abandon fossil fuel and explore new green ways of generating electricity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Jeffrey. Cool article.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a typo in your registered name :P
Anyways, to start off, I'd like to say that it's good to see that someone finally picked an article and gave an analysis with a SWOT or PEST analysis, so that was really cool.
I like the layout of your PEST, and how it ultimately showed that there was a positive and negative similarity in terms of how many negative/positive aspects there were. This being said, I would like to focus the attention on the point under "Economic", where you said it was "Hard to attract developers because renewable energy projects are expensive". Do you think there would be certain stakeholders that would have an incentive to help fund or support this action?
I ask this because I noticed the mentioning of a Special Interest Group, the Pele Defense Fund. Since they are interested in protecting the rain forest, and keeping spiritual gatherings allowed in the rain forest while also banning renewable energy (because they consider it sacrilegious), an agreement could potentially be made to allow them to carry on with the religious ceremonies in the rain forest, while having them quiet down about the matter with the renewable energy.
The above example aside, special interest groups similar to the Pele Defense Fund that advocates renewable energy would be a good way to stir interest of the local populace, and hence funds could be generated relatively efficiently to fund the expansion of global warming by offering help or incentives for developers to start up forms of renewable energy and harnessing the natural energy that is abundant to the islands of Hawaii.
Thanks for posting!
Hi Jeffrey! Cool article.
ReplyDeleteAs Lloyd said, I liked the way you presented the PEST analysis so that we can compare the number of opportunities (+) and threats (-). It gives us a really clear view of the situation in Hawaii. Also, I found interesting that you applied the PEST framework to the scale of an entire state, which works very well.
Perhaps you could have extended you PEST analysis to include environmental opportunities and threats, since it applies to the topic of your article.
Again, very interesting article and analysis
Thanks for posting.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCool article JL.
ReplyDeleteI like how you presented both internal and external factors into one analysis. First you used the main external factors of the PEST Analysis, then you added opportunities and threats after each point, which is an important component in the SWOT analysis.
Furthermore, I think that this particular article will also focus on the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (1.3), don't you think? In this case, I think that the Hawaiian Electric Company is acting morally for the society, its customers, and the world as a whole. By turning to alternative energy sources, they are actually benefiting their customers, as they get to live in a less polluted environment. Furthermore, these "greener" forms of energy would significantly reduce the Carbon Dioxide emissions, and would help reduce the impacts of global warming, which, as the title suggests, benefits the entire globe. What are your thoughts of my opinion?
Calvin, I think your comments are very helpful and constructive. I see you demonstrated the IB learner profile: Inquirer, Thinker, Communicator, Knowledgeable, Reflective, and Open-minded. Mr. Opfer will be proud of you.
ReplyDeleteI really like your article and your analysis (especially the PEST)
ReplyDeleteYour article shows us that places around the globe are starting practical implementations in response to global warming. As I have watched on the news, many countries are concerned about global warming. For instance, Srilanka is concerned because the rise of sea level caused by global warming is flooding over its island. Srilanka's government has especially asked USA and China, as the greatest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, to reduce their contributions to global warming.
I think that for a big country such as USA, it is easier to start off its plan to reduce gas emissions in a certain small area and Hawaii is certainly a good place to start. Based on this reason, I think that the US government should fund the green energy researches going on in Hawaii.
Moreover, I think many companies and investors are also very concerned with global warming and will be more than happy to invest in this Hawaiian project as a long term investment since this project, if everything goes well, will eventually expand to cover the whole US. Therefore, I think, in terms of finance, there will not be much of a problem.
As Calvin says, this project will benefit the entire globe. So I think that a lot of people will support this project.
Sorry that this comment is a little bit far-fetched and not really business-related.
Anyways, this is a great article and analysis.
Jason Tang
Cool Article and I also like you PEST analysis!
ReplyDeleteThis article is an indication that businesses around the world are now being more aware of the effects of global warming and are implementing measures to counter the problem as Jason mentioned.
However, I also have a different comment in regards to "Hard to attract developers because renewable energy projects are expensive" in the economic section. Since governments are now putting greater emphasis on alternate sources of energy, there would aggressive subsidies provided by governement to encourage the change. Due to this trend, I believe that more countries would start to switch to producing an alternate source of energy in future