Photos: Renewable energy in Kodiak

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Kodiak Electric Association operates six wind turbines on a Pillar Mountain ridge above the city. They contribute 16-18 percent of the power that the company generates. Photographed on Tuesday, July 21, 2015.

From the window of a yellow floatplane, Kodiak Electric Association president Darron Scott points to towering white wind turbines strung along a green ridge on Pillar Mountain, a pinnacle behind town.

Those wind turbines, a leap of faith for the community six years ago, now account for between 16 percent to 18 percent of the electricity Kodiak uses. So far, they've saved the city from using more than 8 million gallons of diesel fuel and have helped to stabilize rates. People in Kodiak now pay less for electricity than they did 15 years ago. A bill for 600 kilowatt hours of electricity, considered a household standard, in Kodiak runs $102.73, cheaper than in places like Homer, Fairbanks, the Mat-Su or even Anchorage.

"I can't think of anything else in Kodiak (priced) like that, except salmon," says Scott, an amiable Texas-bred engineer who has lived on the island for more than 15 years.

The mountaintop wind farm has also become the symbol of a gradual revolution that has lately put this Gulf of Alaska island on the map as a vanguard of rural renewable energy.

Read more: Kodiak reaps benefits of renewable energy, with lessons for rural Alaska