{"id":505,"date":"2016-12-03T16:28:51","date_gmt":"2016-12-03T21:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/l-stires.com\/thinking-slowly\/?p=505"},"modified":"2016-12-03T16:28:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T21:28:51","slug":"the-way-of-tau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/l-stires.com\/thinking-slowly\/the-way-of-tau\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way of Ta’u"},"content":{"rendered":"

If human life is to survive on this planet, we must switch to 100% renewable energy very soon\u2014yesterday, if possible. There is now a demonstration project that can help us to visualize this possibility.<\/p>\n

Ta\u2019u is the largest island in American Samoa, a U. S. territory in the Southern Pacific Ocean. It\u2019s about 17 square miles and has 790 inhabitants. It previously generated electricity by shipping in 109,500 gallons of diesel fuel every year. Not only was this expensive, but there were occasional interruptions of the supply due to rough seas.<\/p>\n

Ta\u2019u now runs on nearly 100% solar energy<\/a> due to the installation of a 1.4 megawatt microgrid consisting of 5328 Solar City solar panels and 60 Tesla Powerpacks, which are batteries for energy storage. This not only gives them enough energy to supply the island\u2019s needs 24\/7, it provides enough storage capacity to last for three days without sunlight\u2014a rare\u00a0occurrence\u2014and recharges in seven hours. Here\u2019s a promotional video from Tesla advertising the project.<\/p>\n