Tesla, an electric vehicle company led by Elon Musk, has revealed that it runs an entire island in the United States on solar power. The island of Ta'u in American Samoa is equipped with 5,328 solar panels and 60 Tesla Powerpacks that store the solar energy. It took the Tesla, which recently acquired solar panel-making company SolarCity, one year to make the island run entirely on solar energy.

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The people on the remote island have been facing various challenges that include food scarcity, destructive weather, and most of all, lack of affordable and reliable power. Located more than 4,000 miles from the West Coast of the United States, the island is no stranger to power rationing and outages.

The island, which hosts nearly 600 people, has been using diesel generators for power. One generator burns around 300 gallons of fuel per day which amounts to 109,500 gallons per year.

"I recall a time they weren't able to get the boat out here for two months," said Keith Ahsoon, a local resident whose family owns a food store on the island. "We rely on that boat for everything, including importing diesel for the generators for all of our electricity. Once diesel gets low, we try to save it by using it only for mornings and afternoons. I remember growing up using candlelight."

Tesla installed a solar power and a battery storage-enabled microgrid with 1.4 megawatts of solar generation capacity and six-megawatt hours of battery storage that fulfils nearly 100 percent of the island's power needs with renewable energy, SolarCity revealed on its blog. This way, Tesla and SolarCity succeeded in providing a cost-saving alternative to diesel, making the hazards of power intermittency and making outages a thing of the past.

There are many communities like Ta'u across the globe that use diesel as their main source of power. Solar power makes a much better alternative to diesel. It is clean, safe, and costs less than diesel everywhere in the world. Solar and storage systems also eliminate expenses and issues associated with shipping diesel. Additionally, they provide stable power costs for decades, unlike fluctuating fossil fuel prices.

The project, funded by the American Samoa Economic Development Authority, the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, is making history by reducing the carbon footprint of the island.

"It's a serious problem, and this project will hopefully set a good example for everyone else to follow," Ahsoon said.