Island power

The island is running entirely on stored sunshine.

There is no power line to the mainland. Everything the island runs on is made here — by the solar array, the battery bank it charges, and the generators that cover the rest.

Reading taken 9:00 pm · Wednesday 9 September

Where the island’s power is coming from

  • The sun0 kW

    down until sunrise

  • Generators0 kW

    switched off

  • The island639 kW

    marina, clubhouse, homes

  • Batteries639 kW

    powering the island · 67% left

Each bar is how much power is moving, and the arrow says which way. When the batteries are full or the sun sets, they stop filling up and start feeding the island instead.

Battery bank

67%

Discharging. What you are using right now is sunshine the array collected earlier.

Powered by the sun right now

0%

0%100% of the island

Nothing from the array after dark — but a large share of tonight's power was made by the sun today.

Made by the sun today

13k kWh

That is energy, not power — the total collected since midnight. The array has made 422k kWh in the last thirty days.

Today so far

Every reading from the island since midnight. Where the gold rises above the blue, the sun is making more than the island can use and the extra is going into the batteries.

  • Sun today
  • What the island is using
  • Sun yesterday
01,5003,000kWnow12am6amnoon6pm12am

What the numbers mean

kW — kilowatts

How much power something is making or using at this instant. One kilowatt is roughly one hair dryer running. The whole island sits somewhere between 450 and 1,000 of them.

kWh— kilowatt‑hours

Power added up over time — the same word your electricity bill uses at home. One kilowatt running for one hour is one kilowatt‑hour.

Why the generators still run

They cover the gap before sunrise, after a long grey day, and whenever the batteries run low. Every kilowatt the sun and the batteries supply is a kilowatt of diesel not burned.

Readings come from the island’s own power system and refresh every few minutes. The full engineering view lives at solar.chubcay.com.