The diversity of islands of developing and developed nations offers a unique opportunity to demonstrate how deploying large amounts of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) within smart grid architectures tailored to local energy contexts can be a cost-effective complement, and even an alternative, to current fossil-fuel solutions.

This paper, authored by Annex 4: Synthesis Insights for Decision Makers, covers the following topics:

• The energy supply challenges faced by islands
• Ways in which renewable energy technologies can improve sustainable electricity supply
• Ways in which smart grid technologies can help enable the integration of large amounts of intermittent RES
• Lessons learned from demonstration projects in islands
• The importance of island systems in the global context of clean energy systems in developing and developed countries.