The military landscape of Kinmen is an historical treasure left behind following the threat of war. Kinmen used to be a key military location of high strategic value, and witnessed some decisive victories battles. However, owing to rapid developments in the worldwide landscape and changes in cross-strait relations, Kinmen has been transformed from a high-alert military fortification to a famous group of islands that attract many tourists. In the last few years, the issue of climate change has increased the public's environmental awareness. In dedication to this issue, Kinmen is aggressively pursuing the construction of an energy-efficiency management network. As the current overall power supply for the Kinmen mainly from thermal power, Kinmen is hoping that by developing greener sources of energy it can play a role in the worldwide campaign to address the problems of global warming. In order to achieve the goal, the first focus should be on the best method of making good use of the natural resources of the islands - solar and wind power - and the integration of these natural resources with the unique resource of the islands - military installations. Kinmen needs to rethink the application and management of the regeneration of the abandoned military installations. By applying the approach proposed in this paper, Kinmen could develop a renewable energy scheme with distributed power systems to replace the centralized power plants. In addition to the unique characteristics of Kinmen's existing ecology and cultural history, the feasible development of renewable energy sources by integration with surplus military installations will convert Kinmen into an area with the unique combined characteristics of environmental education and tourism. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.