Successful Experience of Renewable Energy Development in Several Offshore Islands

Abstract Islands incur more difficult and expensive energy supplies; many offshore islands, therefore, develop renewable energy to supply energy and reduce CO2 emissions. However, most of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, are intermittent and variable sources of power. To overcome the integration problems, numerous islands have utilized several useful methods. For instance, the island of Gran Canaria applied the pumped storage systems to reutilize energy, and the island of Lolland developed renewable hydrogen community. The operation experience of these islands is extremely worthy to appreciate. This article introduces eight offshore islands and discusses about their present situations, policies, successful experience and challenges about renewable energy development. Those islands include Samso, Reunion, Cyprus, Crete, King Island, Agios Efstratios, Utsira and El Hierro. The successful experience on those islands can provide useful information for other islands for developing renewable energy.