Solar power for the Port Stephens Koala Hospital at ANNA BAY

For more than 34 years, the team at Port Stephens Koala Hospital has led the way in rescuing, protecting, caring for, and rehabilitating Australia’s most loved marsupial.

The crew, made up of dedicated volunteers and staff, have continuously championed innovation at the facility to support their vital work for injured and vulnerable local wildlife.

To meet the demands of the busy and growing facility, they sought the help of local solar providers, Solahart Newcastle, to install a reliable and efficient renewable energy system to strengthen the hospital’s operations and reduce carbon emissions.

President of the Port Stephens Koala Hospital, Ron Land, and his team had a vision for a fully integrated hospital and connected enclosures to provide a single space for treatment, care, and eventual rehabilitation of the koalas.

In 2020, this dream became a reality, and for the past three years, the hospital and rehabilitation centre has significantly increased its ability to deal with emergencies.

“Assessing ways to improve the facility’s capacity to care for and treat the koalas is a continuous undertaking, and a major focus point this year has been reviewing our energy solutions and usage,” said Ron.

“The hot weather we’ve been experiencing is a timely reminder that we must take precautions so we can continue our operations in the event of bushfires and heatwaves this summer.

“Power is critical to our emergency treatments, and we need to ensure we have backup options to handle all environmental conditions,” continued Ron.

After consulting the experts at Solahart Newcastle, Port Stephens Koala Hospital made the decision to install a brand-new solar power system.

With all Solahart products designed and manufactured to withstand even the harshest Australian conditions, Solahart Newcastle was able to offer Port Stephens Koala Hospital an efficient and tailored plan and reliable solar solution.

In developing the bespoke solar ecosystem, Port Stephens Koala Hospital opted to install a 29.6kW Solahart Platinum Silhouette solar power system with 74 x 400W Solahart Silhouette Panels. This was combined with a SolarEdge Genesis Inverter, an Energy Hub Inverter, as well as two SolarEdge Energy Bank Batteries, all supplied by Solahart, to maximise solar energy production and self-consumption.

The size of the wildlife hospital and rehabilitation centre and its leafy surrounds were key considerations when building the proposal.