Column: A truly sustainable, resilient energy economy

Hawaii’s renewable energy transition is progressing well with significant solar, wind and battery deployments. On Kauai, for instance, the grid is already capable of running on 100% renewable energy. We have invested in hydroelectric, pumped storage hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal, but they pale in comparison.

We are also making progress in decarbonizing ground transportation, where electric vehicles, mass transit and active transport are reducing emissions. EVs are now around 2% of Hawaii’s passenger cars, and ownership is accelerating with an annual growth rate of about 30%. Mass transit is gaining traction, and thanks to federal incentives and our statewide transportation decarbonization goals, we will see more zero-emissions buses around the state.

However, for solutions to be truly sustainable, we must focus on their full life-cycle impact — their global carbon emission and environmental impact, based on what’s required to produce, transport, use, recycle and dispose of them. Doing this allows us to understand the “cradle to cradle” costs and dependencies of a solution and helps us deliver those with the lowest environmental costs. It will also ensure that our solutions can be sustained into the distant future.

While progress in energy and transportation is very promising, many renewable energy solutions depend on fossil fuels. Mining, manufacturing and transportation processes use diesel, coal, gas and oil. Many of these processes are difficult to wean from fossils.

Our solutions depend on metals and rare earth minerals from other countries and are subject to growing global demand. This competition for metals, rare earth minerals, and fossil energy can negatively impact the momentum of our efforts.

There are urgent efforts to address these issues, as we’ve seen with the incentives built into the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act to boost domestic mining for essential minerals and U.S. manufacturing. Additionally, we expect technological innovations in materials, manufacturing, recycling and transport will diminish the reliance on key minerals. Still, these improvements will not happen overnight and will not mitigate the global demand for materials in a timely manner.

What do we do? We can expand biogenic, hydroelectric and geothermal energy production. We can invest in gravity storage like pumped hydro. These minimally depend on ongoing material imports and have a lower life- cycle impact. Critically, they can contribute to our resilience since they can run perpetually without significant material inputs.

Geothermal energy can enable Hawaii to play a role in decarbonizing global maritime, aviation and industrial sectors. These sectors are difficult to electrify and will rely on alternative fuels. We already see an emerging global demand for green hydrogen and associated liquid fuels to support these sectors. Hydrogen can also be used to create aviation fuel, methanol and ammonia. Methanol and ammonia can fuel transoceanic ships. Ammonia is also a critical fertilizer.

The challenge is that green hydrogen requires much renewable energy for production. (Almost all hydrogen produced today comes from coal or gas.) Abundant, cheap electricity is needed to run the equipment used to generate hydrogen. With its great renewable energy resources, particularly geothermal, Hawaii can generate renewable energy for green hydrogen. Yes — we can even become a clean energy exporter and contributor to global food production.

Hawaii can create a truly sustainable future that generates more than enough clean energy to sustain its economy, creates economic opportunity, enable food and energy resilience, and contribute meaningfully to the decarbonization of the global economy. We can achieve this by diversifying our energy portfolio, focusing on clean, sustainable indigenous energy.

Doing this will help us create a sustainable and resilient energy system that future generations will appreciate and enjoy.