A High-Renewables Tomorrow Today: King Island, Tasmania

King Island, Tasmania, is implementing the King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project (KIREIP) to transition from diesel-based power to a high-renewables system. By integrating wind, solar, a large-scale UltraBattery, and D-UPS generators, the island has achieved periods of 100-percent-renewable power and significantly reduced diesel consumption. Additionally, the proposed TasWind project aims to export large-scale wind energy to mainland Australia.

• The King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project (KIREIP), led by Hydro Tasmania, aims to reduce fossil fuel dependence and constrain power prices. The project utilizes a combination of wind, solar, biodiesel, storage, and smart grid technologies to target a renewable energy share of 65 percent of annual electricity use, with occasional periods of 100-percent-renewables power. This transition has already seen annual diesel consumption drop from 4.5 million liters before renewable adoption to 2.6 million liters by 2011, with a further goal of reaching 1.6 million liters.
• King Island has implemented several specific renewable and stability technologies: six dual-axis tracking PV arrays providing 100 kilowatts of solar power (200 megawatt-hours per year); a 3 megawatt/1.6 megawatt-hour UltraBattery storage system, which is the largest battery installed in Australia and can power the island for 45 minutes; and two diesel-powered rotary uninterruptible power supply (D-UPS) generators. The D-UPS allows the grid to operate without diesel generators during high wind periods, enabling the first instance of 100-percent-renewable-energy penetration for a community of this scale.

APA

RMI (2013). A High-Renewables Tomorrow Today: King Island, Tasmania. https://rmi.org/resources/a_high_renewables_tomorrow_today_king_island_tasmania/

Chicago

RMI. A High-Renewables Tomorrow Today: King Island, Tasmania. 2013. https://rmi.org/resources/a_high_renewables_tomorrow_today_king_island_tasmania/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=A High-Renewables Tomorrow Today: King Island, Tasmania |date=7 August 2013 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/a_high_renewables_tomorrow_today_king_island_tasmania/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2013highrenewables, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{A High-Renewables Tomorrow Today: King Island, Tasmania}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2013}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/a_high_renewables_tomorrow_today_king_island_tasmania/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }