Tairua Surf Life Saving Club has received free solar from SolarZero, allowing the club to allocate more resources towards its primary goal of keeping local beaches safe and protecting the community.
Tairua Surf Life Saving Club has received free solar from SolarZero, allowing the club to allocate more resources towards its primary goal of keeping local beaches safe and protecting the community.
Tairua Surf Lifesaving Club is ‘thrilled’ to receive new solar panels and a subscription to reduce spend on bills and reduce their carbon footprint after a partnership with an alternative energy supplier.
In 2022, the club welcomed a new purpose-built $1 million surf club at Tairua, replacing a $4000 fibrolite shack, as part of the Government’s Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund. Other Coromandel clubhouses at Onemana and Pauanui also received upgrades after $17m was invested into surf clubs around the country.
Club chairwoman Betsie Warner said the partnership with SolarZero would give the club access to state-of-the-art solar panels and energy storage technology to harness the sun’s power to provide clean, renewable energy to the clubhouse.
“Tairua Surf Lifesaving Club can do our part to reduce our impact on the environment by using clean energy, but we will also be able to save money on our ongoing power bills.
“It will also allow us to allocate more of our resources towards our primary goal of keeping our beaches safe and protecting our community.
“We’re absolutely blown away by the generosity of SolarZero and their partners and can’t thank them enough.”
The value of having trained lifeguards on Coromandel’s beaches was no more evident than on May 16 this year, when members from Tairua and Pāuanui Surf Life Saving clubs, Pāuanui and Tairua paid lifeguard services, the Pāuanui/Tairua Search and Rescue Squad and Tairua-Pāuanui Coastguard received Certificates of Achievement for Operational Activity for their efforts in rescuing and providing medical care to the occupants of a boat that flipped on the Tairua Bar on January 5, 2022.
Enabling the club to become a community hub in difficult times and allow people to come together to recharge was a crucial driver in the sponsorship, said SolarZero local territory manager Daniel Pereira.
Members from the Pāuanui Surf Lifesaving Club, Pāuanui and Tairua paid lifeguard services, the Pāuanui/Tairua Search and Rescue Squad, and Tairua-Pāuanui Coastguard attended the New Zealand Search and Rescue awards at Parliament in Wellington.
“Tairua Surf Lifesaving Club not only provides life-saving training and care for the community, but they’ve also got a great facility perfectly located to make the most of solar and support the wider community.
“We wanted to support that going forward.
“Helping the club keep their ongoing energy costs down and move towards renewable energy so they can reallocate funds to their amazing programmes was a no-brainer for us.”
The sponsorship includes using 16 solar panels donated by JA Solar and 10.8 kW battery storage donated by Panasonic, with SolarZero providing installation, monitoring, contingency response backup power management and system optimisation to keep the power going during outages.
The batteries would enable the club to keep lights, Wi-Fi, radio, TV and selected appliances on to support the broader community during power outages.
With SolarZero covering its 20-year solar subscription fee, the club will only pay for additional energy needed from Ecotricity at solarZero membership rates.
“We provide a renewable energy subscription to enable people to purchase cheaper, cleaner energy, removing the need to buy and maintain a solar system,” Pereira said.
“Thousands of Coromandel locals had no power during Cyclone Gabrielle, so the more people who choose solar with battery storage, the more robust the local power network will become.”
