When the Ecuadorian government asked the world’s largest electric companies to help bring renewable energy to the Galapagos Islands—one of the world’s most environmentally sensitive places—they turned to a wind farmer from Maine.

Engineer Jim Tolan spent five years as project director, under the umbrella of an international energy partnership, overseeing the construction of three 800 kilowatt wind turbines which will provide 80 percent of the necessary power for San Cristobal, the largest island and home to about 6,000 residents. Being too far off the electrical grid, the islands had to rely on oil tankers for energy; a massive oil spill in 2001 forced the government to seek alternate energy sources to protect the 5,000 different species of plants and animals—many of them endemic—to the islands.

Inaugurated in April 2008, the three turbines—the first stage of the island-wide project—illustrate the power of renewable energy in some of our last remaining pristine environments.