Hawaii residents pay among the highest energy costs in the country. We are the most oil-dependent state in America — 90 percent dependent on imported fossil fuels for our energy needs. And with the looming threat of global warming, time is not on our side.

An aggressive new state and federal initiative, however, is looking to accelerate the transformation of Hawaii into one of the world’s first economies based primarily on clean energy resources such as wind, solar, ocean, geothermal and bioenergy. The state would also serve as a model for the rest of the nation.

Gov. Linda Lingle and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner signed a non-binding agreement in January to establish this “Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative.”

Through the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, the state will become a test bed for technology and a place for private companies to launch new ventures.

It’s a tall order for Hawaii: 70 percent renewable energy driven by the year 2030. It’s a goal that director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) Ted Liu says will require “a structural transformation of how Hawaii generates, transmits and uses energy.”

Currently, only about eight percent of Hawaii’s energy is provided by renewable sources.

"This is as important as anything else we do for the next three years," Gov. Lingle said in her State of the State address. "It means moving away from our current over-dependence on oil in favor of renewable energy … and that we do it more rapidly than some would like and others believe possible."

"This partnership is based on the vision that Hawaii must accelerate its transformation to a clean energy future by tapping into the latest national and global advancements, and that our abundant natural sources of energy position us to be a model for the world to show what can be accomplished by developing indigenous renewable energy."

Liu says that the state’s overdependence on fossil fuels not only poses an environmental threat, but also an economic and security issue. The unconnected power grids of our islands and the state’s location as the world’s most isolated archipelago add to these challenges.

According to the state, Hawaii’s energy paradigm must fundamentally change, and it must be an urgent, rapid transformation.

The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative does not include a specific appropriation of federal money, but the state will be able to tap existing federal dollars for renewable energy projects, says Liu.

Pieces of the project are already getting started with a thorough analysis of the structural elements of Hawaii’s economy. One issue, says Liu, is figuring out how to integrate renewable energies with the existing power grid.

"We’re going to do a series of engineering studies for grid reliability on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui as a building block to see how to get more solar energy on these power grids," explains Liu. "We believe that once we understand what needs to be done with our infrastructure, that’s where federal and private sector projects are going to be able to come in and supply renewable energy."