Small islands, big ripples – how Tasmanian innovation empowers remote places 

King Island and Flinders Island are stunning, windswept places – but they’re a long way from the mainland. For decades, diesel was the only option for powering homes and businesses. Then Entura and Hydro Tasmania changed the game. What we achieved redefined sustainable remote power, with a wave of impact now spreading across Australia and the Indo-Pacific.  

The great thing about waves is that they always come back to shore. What we learn from our national and international remote hybrid projects, we bring right back home again. In a world searching for sustainable energy in challenging places, it’s a story worth telling. 

Come on a whirlwind tour 

First stop, King Island. From 2007, Entura helped Hydro Tasmania create one of the most advanced off-grid renewable energy systems in the world. Wind turbines, solar panels, fast-responding batteries, flywheels, and some very clever control systems – all working elegantly together so the island can run entirely on renewable energy when the weather’s right.  

This system – first known as the King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project (KIREIP) – allowed King Island to run on renewables and smash records for sustained periods of ‘zero diesel’ operation. That meant saving money, avoiding emissions, and showing the world what’s possible. 

Renewables on King Island 

Next: Flinders Island. There, we developed a ‘plug-and-play’-style hybrid energy hub – with everything from solar panels to control systems built off-site in container-like modules, then shipped and connected up quickly. The result was reliable power, far less diesel, and the ability to scale or replicate the system almost anywhere. 

Flinders Hub containerised modules 

By 2013, we were rolling out sustainable offgrid solutions across mainland Australia, beginning with Rottnest Island (Western Australia) and Coober Pedy (South Australia). More recently, Jabiru (Northern Territory) and at remote mining sites where mine owners are working hard to decarbonise their operations.  

We’ve extended our remote area offgrid power expertise across the Pacific and South Asia, supporting projects in Tonga, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Tuvalu, the Maldives and more – even in Antarctica!  

An example: Braving boats and bad weather to make a difference in Tonga 

We’ve recently reached the finish line on a project that has involved around 50 Enturans drawn from most of our teams, spanning more than 1300 ‘person days’ across 8 years, including 2 years of COVID travel restrictions, a volcanic eruption and tsunami, and many, many hours on (or waiting for) planes and small boats. But it’s a project that is really changing lives.  

The Tonga Renewable Energy Project (TREP) – funded by the Asian Development Bank, Green Climate Fund and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – was established to provide more renewable generation and energy storage to increase electricity access, improve service quality and reliability, and support Tonga’s energy transition, climate resilience and environmental sustainability (less diesel!) 

Thanks to TREP, there are now new solar and battery systems on Tongatapu (the main island), grid-connected renewable energy generation on ‘Eua and Vava’u islands, and 9 outer islands have solar-battery systems. 

On those outer islands, nearly 500 households now have 24/7 grid electricity for the very first time. Thanks to reliable electricity and new electric appliances, many community members have reported being able to better manage their work-life balance and studies, start micro-businesses that use electric appliances, earn more income, and eat fresher food. What’s more, the TREP project had strong gender targets, resulting in many local women being trained as carpenters, electricians and line workers. 

Entura’s roles included feasibility assessments and due diligence, support for tendering and procurement, construction supervision as Owner’s Engineer, and providing capacity building to support the future sustainability of operating and maintaining the renewable energy systems. 

TREP really demonstrates the practical implementation of Entura’s vision of ‘a sustainable energy future for all’.  

Entura engineers Gaby Tregurtha and Lachlan McKenna (at right) visiting a TREP site 

Solar array and battery energy system on Vava’u island, Tonga 

An ongoing loop of learning 

What we trialled and proved on King and Flinders islands gave us the springboard to deliver hybrid renewables projects in the Pacific and beyond. Now, our projects on the mainland and across our region bring fresh ideas and deeper experience to refine and evolve our systems here at home. For example, we’re working to keep King Island powered for generations – supporting the Huxley Hill solar and wind farms.  

It’s no stretch to say that Entura’s work on the Bass Strait islands reached a long way beyond Tasmania. It continues to keep the lights on in exotic places and it fuels innovation in off-grid and hybrid renewable energy systems throughout our region, all grounded in an ongoing exchange of shared learning, adaptation and impact. 

Wind turbines on King Island 

Solar panels on Flinders Island