Isolated Power

Islands have energy needs just like the rest of the world.  The folks who live on islands still want and need to be able to drive cars and boats, and have electricity and all of the modern comforts that it affords.  Most of the time this means shipping in fossil fuels and burning them in big noisy, dirty generators.  The generators tend to have issues and not function all that well all the time, not too mention the cost of shipping in the fuel.

A few island communities are starting to make the move to renewable energy sources, which allows the communities to power themselves without having to ship in so much fossil fuel.  The islands of Tokelau are the latest to get on board the bandwagon.  According to New Scientist by the middle of 2012 solar photovoltaic cells will power the grid on Tokelau with coconut oil generators picking up the slack.

Now all they need is a fleet of electric cars...