Kodiak Island, Alaska is an isolated island off the south coast of the state and gets no power from the state's main grid. Like other isolated islands, Kodiak has relied upon diesel generators to provide a large chunk of their energy needs, but the island is starting to ditch the diesel and harness the wind.
Up until recently, the island got 80 percent of its energy from a two-unit hydroelectric plant and the other 20 percent from seven diesel generators. The island installed three 1.5-MW wind turbines atop Pillar Mountain last year and as of this past August, those wind turbines have replaced most of their need for diesel, with the oil only accounting for 7.7 percent of their energy.
The Pillar Mountain Wind Project will save over a million gallons of fuel a year. The Kodiak Electric Associaton (PDF) hopes to produce 95 percent of their energy through renewable sources by 2020 and they're already most of the way there.
While Kodiak Island only has a population of 12,000, it seems places like this are leading the way to a clean energy future.
via Earth Techling
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