Vashon Island could become energy independent

06:19 PM PDT on Thursday, July 28, 2005

By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. - Vashon Island, in Washington’s Puget Sound, is an ideal place for a groundbreaking study on energy independence. That’s what a group called the Institute for Environmental Research and Education says, and wants to prove that it is possible.

This project could change how the world consumes energy, starting right here in Puget Sound. Work is underway to restore an historic greenhouse complex on Vashon Island, but the site will eventually become much more.

The group, Institute for Environmental Research and Education is taking a fresh approach to energy conservation. “The concept is, we can be energy independent here on Vashon Island, and in most communities within ten years."

KING

More wind farms are planned in Washington state.

Using a diverse and impressive list of corporate and private sponsors, the group is using an old farm for its model. Members erected a tower to measure wind speeds. The island winds are not strong but they're enough. "There is new technology in wind turbines that extract more of the wind at low speeds and make it economically feasible here."

But it's hard to imagine the quiet, lush forests of Vashon Island covered by a forest of wind turbines. "You'd only need 15 wind turbines to power essentially the whole island."

Artist’s drawings show just a cluster of turbines on the high banks of Vashon and Maury Islands. The group says that's all it would take because the wind turbines would be supported by a series of biomass generators.

They would also install a network of solar panels on homes and buildings all over the island, a concept many residents seem to embrace. "Well that's a good place to start. Vashon's probably the best place I guess." The best place because it has a both favorable weather and political climates, and because the group can first prove its system on the farm, then the whole island.

And if it works there, they hope to ship the technology off the island to communities on the mainland. Energy independence may become Vashon Island's most famous export.

The groups used donations from a diverse group of investors, private and corporate, including heavy hitters like the Vulcan Corporation and Bullitt foundation to develop the study.