These Islands Are Showing the World How to Ditch Fossil Fuels [View all]

[eridani]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/08/07/how-and-why-islands-are-becoming-renewable-energy-trendsetters?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-08-07

Hawaii’s plan to rid its electric grid of fossil fuels by 2045 is the most ambitious target set by any American state, but it shouldn’t come as a shock.

For island states and nations disconnected from mainland grids, the price of transporting diesel, oil, or natural gas often negates the benefit of cheaper fuel.
Advertisement

In Hawaii’s case, the state forks over about $5 billion per year to import oil to fuel power plants. As a result, Hawaiians pay the nation’s highest electricity rates.

Transporting fuel by ship also raises the risk of oil spills, such as the 2001 incident off San Cristobal Island in the Galápagos archipelago. Ocean currents carried most of the 150,000 gallons of oil away from the island, but scientists estimated it killed more than 60 percent of the marine iguanas on nearby Santa Fe Island.