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Editor’s note: Read our blog coverage from the summit to get a day-by-day feel for the event.

Rising oil prices and a growing lack of patience among business and community leaders gave this year’s clean energy summit a greater sense of urgency.

Hawaii’s near total dependence on oil to power its homes, businesses and transportation needs is putting the state’s economy and security in a perilous position, leaders of the renewable energy sector say.

But local residents aren’t convinced wind farms and biofuel plants are things they want in their backyards.

The third annual at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu this week attracted local and global experts from 13 countries.

Hawaii is dependent on imported oil for 90 percent of its energy needs, and foreign oil didn’t fare well in the three days of discussions.

“We borrow a billion dollars a day from people who hate us, pay them (money) in order to buy what they have at a price that they dictate because they run the worldwide cartel and can charge us even more,” said former CIA director, James Woolsey, in reference to OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. “We really outdo [Vladimir] Lenin’s notion of how stupid and greedy capitalists are.”

That was the national view, and then there was the local angle.

“For all the run-ups in the market, there was plenty of oil all of this time,” said Robbie Alm, executive vice president of Hawaiian Electric Co., of recent spikes in oil prices that followed unrest in the Middle East. “Our economy is completely subject to what a bunch of people decide to do in speculating in oil prices. For an economy like ours, that’s an absurd position to be in.”

The remarks were delivered at a conference filled with top energy experts and high-profile public officials, with topics ranging from emerging clean energy technologies, financing, regulatory and public policy affairs, and community engagement.

Some of the keynote speakers included Woolsey, TJ Glauthier, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy under President Bill Clinton, and Jason Hu, mayor of Taichung City, China.

This was the third year of the conference, and some, including Cameron Black, a permitting specialist at the state energy department, said it was tinged with a greater sense of urgency.

Hawaii has attracted national attention for its aggressive clean energy goals and its ideal location for acting as a test bed for emerging clean energy technologies. The state, utilities and the federal DOE signed on to the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative in 2008, which aims to bring Hawaii to 40 percent renewable energy by 2030, with a major focus also on energy efficiency measures.

“It was a great networking opportunity,” said Mitch Ewan, a program manager in hydrogen systems at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. “There’s value right there, otherwise you have to travel and pay $3,000 just to see someone.”

Networking was a big theme, with technology companies mingling with major investors, such as Lockheed Martin, which has been working with Makai Ocean Engineering to commercialize a form of ocean energy, commonly referred to as OTEC.

Nearly 200 speakers were spread over 38 panel discussions. Some were tame as experts discussed such things as the intricacies in project permitting. Others grew more animated when themes turned to the local conflicts involving Hawaii’s transformation to clean energy, which has grown increasingly contentious and factionalized.

Community resistance toward biofuel plants and wind farms, conflicts between different renewable energy sectors and public concerns about the cost of Hawaii’s transition, have all plagued the local energy dialogue.

Executives of , the start-up company that wants to take over Hawaiian Electric, were also in attendance. Both Woolsey and Glauthier are board members of Kuokoa.

Responding to local conflicts, leaders called for a spirit of cooperation, stressing the urgency of Hawaii’s dependency on foreign oil, the price of which is erratic and expected to rise.

“I think it’s going to take a relentless, positive energy,” said Alm, . “We can get bogged down in the negativity and the yelling and the complaints and the name calling, or we can decide that we can get off this. We have to let this stuff blow through us.”

Alm also issued a vigorous defense of Hawaiian Electric’s business model, which has come under attack, such as Kuokoa executives, arguing that the utility needs to go private in order to allow for the type of flexibility needed to convert to renewable energy.

“If you are a business person and didn’t think you could make money as a company (such as Hawaiian Electric), than I suggest you rethink your business background,” said Alm. “There’s a healthy model for us in the future.”

Despite discord, the overall theme concentrated on cultivating the private sector to meet growing demands for alternative energy, and positioning Hawaii to take advantage of the opportunities in a growing market.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates identified the global, clean tech market at $7 trillion over the next two decades, according to Ted Peck, the former state energy administrator, who left his position to join Kuokoa as president.

“Hawaii is in a perfect position to grab market share on a global scale, not just locally, and we need to move quickly to take hold of that opportunity,” said Peck. “This conference is an outstanding launch point for engendering a clean tech economy.”