Tesla's new sister company has turned a remote Pacific island almost entirely solar-powered, Elon Musk's SolarCity said in a blog post on Tuesday.



The island of Ta'u in American Samoa, 4,000 miles from the U.S. West Coast, now has a solar power and battery storage microgrid with 1.4 megawatts of solar generation capacity and six megawatt hours of battery storage from 60 Tesla Powerpacks, the blog said.

That was enough to supply nearly all of the power needs for the island's residents, which number around 600, according to the blog.

The grid replaces the more than 109,500 gallons of diesel the remote island imported every year to power generators and would be more reliable, likely eliminating the need for power rationing, the blog said.

Keith Ahsoon, a local resident whose family owns one of the food stores on the island, told SolarCity that residents relied on boat delivery for almost everything.

"I recall a time they weren't able to get the boat out here for two months," he said, according to the blog.

"Once diesel gets low, we try to save it by using it only for mornings and afternoons. Water systems here also use pumps, everyone in the village uses and depends on that," Ahsoon added, recalling using candlelight while growing up.