A December 2008 New York Times editorial, titled “Hawaii’s Moon Shot,” discussed the radical idea for the islands to be powered by 100% renewable energy, suggesting that “leadership in a clean-energy movement” could spread “to the rest of the nation.” They were right.
Hawaii has since made impressive progress on its clean energy pursuit. What’s more, our climate leadership brought setting an expiration date for fossil fuels into the political mainstream.
In 2013, Blue Planet worked with state lawmakers to introduce a 100% renewable energy target — the nation’s first. We were told it was impossible, or impossibly expensive. The governor at the time called the proposal “magical thinking.”
It always seems that tomorrow’s solutions are cast as radical when today’s situation is truly radical. Hawaii relies on almost one supertanker of crude every 10 days to power our islands — much of it from corrupt regimes (Hawaii bought over $1 billion of Libyan oil in 2019).
Success came in 2015. After a broad community campaign, legislators selected 2045 as the year Hawaii’s electricity would be fossil-fuel free.
The 100% renewable law was a game changer. The goal changed the long-term energy planning conversation, unlocked innovation, and fostered new collaboration.
It did more than that. Hawaii’s law set the bar for the nation. In 2018, California followed Hawaii’s lead with a similar 2045 100% clean energy goal. Now nearly a dozen states and territories have joined with 100% laws. We are in a reinforcing cycle of climate ambition begetting more commitments, which begets more ambition.
Today over one-third of Hawaii’s electricity comes from clean energy. Proposed projects will put us halfway to our goal in a matter of years. Kauai is leading the way, with more than 60% of its power coming from renewable sources — up from about 10% a decade ago. For a few hours on most days, Kauai is demonstrating just how magical 100% renewable energy can be.
Much of this renewable power statewide is coming from mini power plants on residents’ rooftops. Back in 2008, the energy utility projected that 245 homes would have solar by now. Today 90,000 do, leading the nation on a per capita basis.
Importantly, our journey to 100% is far cheaper than we imagined, with new clean energy priced at half that of oil-generated electricity.
We are cutting crude in other ways, too. In 2008, 160 electric vehicles were on our roadways; today, we’re nearing 17,000. Gasoline sales and the number of gas cars have dropped since 2016, while EVs grew 250%.
On many climate solutions, Hawaii is at the vanguard. We are home to the nation’s first large-scale solar-plus-battery project, the first village powered by a renewable microgrid (Kahauiki), the first electric airplane test flight on a commercial route, and numerous leading-edge policies.
Hawaii’s values, bold goals and size unlock these sorts of innovations. By thinking big but starting small, we can de-risk climate solutions, enabling them to scale beyond our shores.
And scale they must. Science tells us we need to cut our carbon emissions in half by 2030 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. This past summer certainly sharpened our catastrophic imagination, with massive climate fires across the West and devastating climate flooding in the East.
As Congress debates an urgent climate package and the globe is set to convene next month for make-or-break climate negotiations, Hawaii can shine as a beacon of hope and a postcard of progress.
Greek mathematician Archimedes famously remarked, “Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth.” Hawaii is that place. We can leverage what we learn here about climate policies, programs and progress to move the planet. That’s how we tip the scales of history.
Jeff Mikulina is the outgoing executive director of Blue Planet Foundation.
