Gilligan’s Island Goes Solar

August 30th, 2012 by Chelsea

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a Hawaiian island that is being furnished with about 260 kilowatts of solar panels.

Nope, this isn’t another farcical TV show plot — Coconut Island, home to the University of Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and the isle shown in the opening and closing of Gilligan’s Island episodes, has entered a 20-year agreement with SolarCity. The plan is for the University of Hawaii to get 25 percent of its total energy usage from renewable sources by 2020, according to Chancellor Tom Apple.

No doubt, Professor Roy Hinkley would approve.

Source: SolarCity
Image: Mana Photo via Shutterstock

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Tags: gilligan's island, gilligan's island solar, quickies, SolarCity, University of Hawaii

About the Author

Chelsea is a former newspaper reporter who has spent the past few years teaching English in Poland, Finland and Japan. When she wasn't teaching or writing, Chelsea was traveling Europe and Asia, sampling spicy street food along the way.

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Ross

Why only 20%?
- T Adkins
  
  Probably due to many states including Hawaii having utility companies that dont feel the power grid can handle intermittent electrical power sources about that %
  - T Adkins
    
    sorry it corrected above to about- should read -dont feel the power grid can handle intermittent electrical power sources above that %
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    The Western grid can accept as much as 35% of its total input from wind (30%) and solar (5%) with no changes. No additional storage. Nada.
    
    As I recall the Hawaiian limit is 5% or so higher.
    
    Adding EVs to the grid increases those levels. Closing down coal plants and switching to natural gas (which we are doing on the Mainland) increases those levels.
    
    We’re also developing way to make some of the demand/load dispatchable. That will further increase the acceptable percentages of renewables.
    
    http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/can-autodr-meet-the-needs-of-renewables/
    
    Finally, there are at least a couple of very promising new utility scale battery technologies under development. One of them should be in production in a few months, just as soon as the factory is finished.
    
    20%/25% is a very low number.