Solar Power

Our goal is to be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Our solar energy journey began in 2007. The first step was an energy audit which identified actions to reduce carbon emissions, noise and the Resorts reliance on the 24hr/7 day a week diesel generator.

In 2008, our Hybrid Solar Power Station was completed. This state-of-the-art system was one of a kind in Australia at the time. We initially reduced our Generator use from 24 hours a day to 14. The system is modular and allows for straightforward expansion. Using the savings from Diesel and some generous support we have grown and expanded the system to a commercial grade, 3-phase system with additional solar panels, batteries and associated infrastructure. In 2019 we achieved our first full 24 hours running on 100% Renewables.

Today the Resort is a mini solar city with 891 solar panels (254kW) & 256 batteries (32,000 amp hours) – capacity to run for days on nothing but sunlight! In 2020, we installed solar hot water systems with an additional 162 solar panels. This has helped us to achieve our goal of powering the Resort by 100% renewable energy.

Our solar energy program has directly taken action against climate change: 550 litres of diesel fuel saved each day which equals 538,010 kg of carbon emissions saved per year.

We aim to run our Resort on 100% renewable energy. This is dependent on the weather and because we experience largely excellent weather we often run on pure sunshine.

This significant achievement has been made possible with support from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority; the Queensland Government’s ‘Great Barrier Reef Island Resorts Rejuvenation Fund’ and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation ‘Reef Islands Initiative’

System Details