Recently, we received a generous grant from Paul G. Allen to study sustainable energy on Vashon-Maury Island. The study will look at all renewable energy sources and identify which ones are technically and economically feasible to build. The first quarterly report for this study is available here. The goal is to displace the entire grid-and also to displace fossil fuel consumption on the island. Our intent is not to go off grid, but to achieve no net energy importation-effectively, the island can use the grid as a battery. The project report Energy Independent Communities is available here. One result of the study is that solar power is abundant - more information on solar power on Vashon can be found here.

What is different about this study is that it is community based, looking at the energy needs and opportunities of the entire community. Once we know what is technically possible, and understand the financial issues, we will be asking the community what it wants to do.

Some of those questions include:

• What energy sources do we want to pursue?
• Are there any sources we don't want to pursue?
• Which ones should we pursue first?
• Who should own or manage this generation capacity?
• How can we build generation capacity and build jobs at the same time?

Based on feedback from the community we will develop a business plan and move ahead with the necessary permitting and engineering studies-and ultimately pass the project to whatever entity will own it.

One idea we are pursuing is the potential to generate hydrogen from renewable energy-and use that to run cars. Residents of Vashon-Maury Island use about 450,000 gallons of gasoline per year, and that makes for a lot of air pollution. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (that will be on the market in 2003 or 2004) have only water for emissions, and hydrogen can be stored and distributed like propane.

If you are interested in getting updates on our project, let us know at staff@iere.org and we will put you on our email list. Our updates occur roughly every two months.