Case Study: Magic Reef Resort, Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Magic Island Resort is in Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands,. It is comprised of sustainably built beach front bungalows. The resort provides a range of facilities for their guests, including electric vehicles, e-bikes and spa facilities.

Challenges included:

• The resort wished to reduce its massive power bills. Energy charges in the Cook Islands are 80 -90 cents per Kilowatt Hour (making this project very attractive with a short payback of less than two years)
• The remoteness of the location
• To configure the system to maximise consumption as not allowed to feed excess energy back into the grid. The system had to run offices, swimming pools, ground lights, charge electric vehicle, E-bikes, beauty spa, fridge and freezers for kitchens etc
• Configuration considerations across the seasons (wet and dry season)

The 11.70kWp roof mount array installed in Magic Reef Bungalows Resort in Cook Islands consist of 1 x Outback FPA33 9000VA 48Vdc Inv/Chrger.

The system also includes Poweroad Li-Ion 48VDC 45.5kWh BESS, smart electrical energy meters, protection equipment, outdoor/interior cabling between solar array as per required standards of Sustainable Energy Industry Association of the pacific Islands (SEIAPI) which adopts the following AS/NZS standards.

• This solar system designed to generate 15.92MWh/year of solar energy annually.
• The system successfully generated supplies solar energy to run all equipment on resort
• Systems paid off in short period
• Resort looking at future expansion based on success of project