But a decade later, Hawai\u02bbi lags far behind leading states in using renewables. And far more than any other state, Hawai\u02bbi relies heavily on high-carbon petroleum to generate power, data from the U.S. Department of Energy shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In July, 24% of Hawaii\u2019s total electricity came from renewables, primarily solar, compared to a national average of about 20%,\u00a0data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, just over 71% of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s electricity came from petroleum-fired power plants, the highest of any state. On average, other states produced less than 1% of their electricity by burning oil.\u00a0<\/p>\n A central purpose of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s law is to make the state energy-independent with \u201ca secure source of affordable energy.\u201d But 10 years after the law passed, Hawai\u02bbi still uses 16 times more energy than it produces, the Energy Administration reports.<\/p>\n The data shows how far Hawai\u02bbi has come in 10 years and what it must do over the next 20. Hawai\u02bbi might be a bit above the national average in its use of renewables. But it significantly lags leaders like\u00a0California<\/a>,\u00a0Texas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Florida<\/a>. In California, for instance, renewables supplied 59% of the Golden State\u2019s electricity generation in July. Natural gas fueled another 31%. Nuclear power provided almost all the rest.<\/p>\n Whether Hawai\u02bbi can meet its mandated goal or even catch up with the leaders remains to be seen. Hawaiian Electric Co. is engaged in grid planning and soliciting proposals from third-party wind and solar farm companies, but\u00a0some of those efforts stalled<\/a>\u00a0after the 2023 wildfires on Maui. A plan to provide condo dwellers the option to buy from off-site solar farms\u00a0has gone nowhere<\/a>, failing to drive the development of big solar farms as the policy envisioned.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Green earlier this month unveiled a $2 billion agreement with Tokyo-based JERA Co.<\/a> to bring natural gas to Hawai\u02bbi, intended as a lower-cost, low-emission alternative to oil while the state transitions to renewables. But the non-binding agreement lacks details and is strongly opposed by the state\u2019s influential environmental lobby.<\/p>\n Data Dives are Civil Beat\u2019s quick takes on numbers and data sets with a Hawai\u2018i angle.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Hawai\u02bbi residents face among the nation\u2019s highest monthly electric bills. A saving grace for Hawai\u02bbi is its temperate climate; the state\u2019s per-capita energy consumption is the nation\u2019s lowest. But many people still struggle to pay<\/a> their electric bills, thanks to high costs of electricity per kilowatt-hour.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state\u2019s reliance on imported petroleum for generating electricity and its isolated island grids contribute to Hawaii having the highest average electricity price of any state, reaching more than triple the U.S. average price,\u201d the Energy Information Administration reports.<\/p>\n Civil Beat\u2019s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai\u2018i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation. \u201cData Dive\u201d is supported in part by the Will J. Reid Foundation. \u201cHawai\u02bbi\u2019s Changing Economy<\/a>\u201d is supported by a grant from the\u00a0Hawai\u02bbi Community Foundation<\/a>\u00a0as part of its work to build equity for all through the CHANGE Framework.<\/p>\n Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/p>\n \n Sorry. That’s an invalid e-mail.\n <\/p>\n \n Thanks! We’ll send you a confirmation e-mail shortly.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state is lagging on renewable energy despite its net-zero goal. Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s mandate to transition to 100% renewable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-255299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Data](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/data-dive.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Civil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753322412_339_logo10.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n