Hawaii’s only realistic chance of meeting its mandated 2045 deadline for generating 100% of electricity sales from renewable resources hinges on steadily pushing hard to transition to a cost-effective and diverse renewable portfolio. Procrastination is not an option.

It’s encouraging then that Hawaiian Electric Companies — Hawaiian Electric, Maui Electric and Hawaii Electric Light — is launching its most ambitious push to date: seeking new, clean-energy projects to provide replacement service as coal-fired AES Hawaii on Oahu is slated to close in 2022, and the oil-fired Kahului Power Plant on Maui is set for 2024 retirement.

While shedding Hawaii’s unwanted status as the most petroleum-dependent state in the nation is a daunting challenge, so is phasing out coal. In recent years, this dirtiest of fossil fuels has served as the source for about 15 percent of Hawaii’s electricity production — the runner-up to imported oil, according to state figures.

Hawaiian Electric intends to put out requests for proposals upon approval by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which is expected sometime this summer. If the timeline holds, the first projects would come online in 2022. Together, they are expected to add up to about 900 megawatts of renewable power — generating about 2 million megawatt-hours annually.

That ranks this push as particularly huge — among the largest single procurement efforts ever undertaken by a U.S. utility. If executed snag-free, the procurement could be a major leap forward on the green path, toward lowering utility bills — Hawaii’s rates are twice the national average — and addressing climate change threats.

Among the project possibilities: wind and solar, or either paired with storage; as well as stand-alone storage or grid services. With grid services, providers offer customers incentives to shift their use of electricity during high- or low-demand periods.

Earlier this year, the PUC gave approval to Hawaiian Electric’s first phase of a grid modernization, which aims to give the power grid capacity for two-way data exchanges. This will improve energy tracking and allow for more finely tuned adjustments to accommodate more clean energy on the grid than is now allowed.

Also, the commission approved contracts for six more grid-scale, solar-plus-battery-storage installations — three on Oahu, one on Maui, and two on Hawaii island — that will add 247 megawatts of energy, with almost 1 gigawatt-hour, or 1,000 megawatt-hours, of storage by the end of 2021.

An upshot is that by 2022, there could be more than 4.4 million solar panels delivering energy to the grid.

While these initial strides will not touch the pocketbooks of all ratepayers, the evolving grid is slated to eventually help enable smaller community-solar projects through which a ratepayer can reap the savings through a communally financed installation, requiring a lower-cost investment. State law established a framework in 2015, but it is not yet realized; PUC regulators should see that it is.

Tech-focused advances, such as increasing storage capacities, are simplifying Hawaii’s switch in sourcing. And overall, the price tag for generating renewable energy is decreasing, making it possible for more and companies and individuals to get involved. Still, Hawaii has a long way to go before declaring energy independence.

Hawaiian Electric Cos. expects to hit a state-imposed milestone of producing a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in which 30% of electricity sales are in renewables by 2020. That’s progress, considering that a decade ago the RPS was less than 10%. However, with the 100% clean-energy deadline just 26 years away, expect some tall hurdles on the path ahead.