The Navy said today it will provide $30 million for a program that provides funding for Hawaii-based startup companies focusing on energy projects.

Startups selected by the Energy Accelerator receive funding up to $100,000 to develop and execute their business plans, helped by a team of mentors.

“Hawaii has the best economic conditions for launching a clean energy company on the planet,” said Dawn Lippert, senior manager of the Energy Accelerator.

“We have electricity prices that are quadruple the average on the U.S. mainland. We pioneered the most aggressive clean energy goals in the country because our government is very serious about getting off of imported oil, and we already have a deep bench of renewable resources that we are looking to integrate more powerfully,” Lippert said.

The Energy Accelerator to date has helped 17 local energy companies bring their technologies to market. The latest round of funding from the Office of Naval Research is triple what it had provided the Energy Accelerator over the previous three years.