Commercial hydroponic farming in Hawaii is nothing new. Numerous farms across the islands are growing high-quality produce — lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and more — without dirt, in a rich bath of water and nutrients. You can buy their products in most supermarkets, although the price can be higher than less-fresh mainland imports.

Now comes Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, with a plan to take hydroponic farming to the next level on Lanai, the island he owns.

In an interview with the Star-Advertiser’s Andrew Gomes, Ellison described plans to build 10 greenhouses, each measuring 20,000 square feet, to produce 1.7 million pounds of produce a year — enough to feed everyone on Lanai and then some.

The greenhouses, estimated to cost about $15 million, would be solar-powered, with a battery storage system by Tesla, and high-tech computers controlling an automated cultivation system.

“We think we can transform agriculture,” Ellison said.

Indeed. But real transformation doesn’t lie just in the promise of better technology. It lies in Ellison’s other promise — to offer fresh local produce that costs “a fraction” of what Hawaii shoppers pay now.

That’s a tougher challenge. In local supermarkets, Hawaii-grown produce can cost as much, if not more, than mainland products, even with shipping costs factored in.

It’s simply more expensive to farm here, with higher costs for everything from fertilizer, pesticides, labor, land, water and energy. On a small, arid island like Lanai, these costs are magnified.

So in theory, Ellison’s state-of-the-art greenhouses could chip away at those costs — as least for Lanai residents and his luxury-hotel guests.

Hydroponic farming uses much less water and can produce more on less acreage than soil-based crops.

An automated system powered by solar energy would reduce electricity costs and increase efficiency, reducing the need for hired labor. And freshly harvested produce has more nutrients than plants picked a week or more earlier and shipped to the islands.

Significantly, the controlled environment of a greenhouse could reduce or eliminate pests, which are a year-round problem in Hawaii’s tropical environment. With the current fears of rat lungworm disease, which can be spread by slugs and snails on produce, a head of lettuce grown in a pest-free environment can be an irresistible lure for the cautious consumer.

That’s all to the good. The hard part — if you’re not a billionaire on a mission — is paying the start-up costs and maintaining a complex, enclosed ecosystem to precise standards. Most hydroponic and aquaponic farming operations in Hawaii are relatively small; spending $15 million on greenhouses to grow cheap lettuce just won’t pencil out.

But Ellison isn’t a small farmer; he has plenty of money and the luxury of conducting a long-term agricultural experiment in growing healthy, sustainable produce.

It may be hard to see now, but it’s hoped that his optimism in the project is well-placed. Hawaii’s agriculture sector has diversified since the demise of sugar and pineapple, but remains a small part of Hawaii’s economy. And hydroponic farming is smaller still.

Even so, developing new technologies to make the process more efficient and worthy of investment could offer more options for Hawaii agriculture. It could also improve the health of local residents, who would have more access to healthy food, competitively priced, grown here at home.

“Hawaii imports 85 percent of its fruits and vegetables,” Ellison remarked, looking around at his Lanai paradise. “How can this be possible?” He has a point.