Red Beach Surf Life Saving Club
How a community solar partnership is helping fund lifesaving services on Auckland's Hibiscus Coast
Solar sponsorships usually mean a logo on a jersey and a press release nobody reads twice. Red Beach is not that story.
This is a case study about a volunteer-run surf club, a power bill that was quietly winning, and two companies who decided the maths shouldn’t matter more than the mission. What we built together — and why we built it the way we did — is worth understanding if you care about what solar can actually do for a community, beyond the panels themselves.
43.68kW, Almost Entirely Funded, Zero Compromise on Quality
Red Beach Surf Life Saving Club has patrolled Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast for 73 years on volunteer hours alone. No paid staff, no corporate backing — just people showing up to keep swimmers safe. Rising power costs were eating straight into the budget meant for rescue gear and training the next generation of lifesavers.
So Trilect Solar and Entelar Energy didn’t quote the job. We funded it. Together we covered around 90% of the total cost of a 43.68kW system — coastal-grade panels, a smart three-phase inverter, the works — leaving the club to find only a small fraction of what a system like this would normally cost. Entelar Energy backed the hardware. Trilect Solar put in the design, the labour, the install, and the commissioning.
Here’s the part that actually matters: nobody involved was chasing a sale. This wasn’t solar sold at a discount — it was solar built as an investment in people who run into danger for free, 73 years running.
That’s the story behind the case study below. Not a discount. A decision.
The Club’s Roof Before The Installation
More Than a Solar Install
Red Beach Surf Life Saving Club has patrolled Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast for 73 years, run entirely by volunteers and backed by 205 senior members and 443 junior surfers. Every dollar the club raises is meant to go toward lifesaving equipment, training and youth development — not power bills. Rising electricity costs were steadily working against that.
Entelar Energy’s Laura Dewar saw how much those costs were squeezing the club’s budget and brought the idea to Trilect Solar’s Peter McInally. What followed wasn’t a standard commercial install. Entelar Energy and Trilect Solar together covered around 90% of the total project cost, leaving the club to fund only a small fraction of a system that would otherwise have been well out of reach. Entelar Energy supplied and funded the solar panels and inverter technology, while Trilect Solar donated the system design, project management, labour, installation and commissioning.
Trilect Solar’s electrical apprentices installed the system hands-on alongside experienced solar electricians.
The System
Trilect Solar’s engineering team started by pulling 12 months of half-hourly interval data from the club’s own power bills, to understand exactly how and when the building used electricity — key to sizing a system around self-consumption rather than just generation capacity.
The result was a 43.68kW DC solar PV array built around 96 SunPower Performance 7 modules (455W, N-Type TOPCon cells), feeding into a 29.9kW three-phase Entelar Smart String Inverter running up to 98.7% efficiency, with arc-fault and surge protection, string-level monitoring and remote diagnostics built in. The array was modelled in Pylon and split across two roof faces as five colour-coded strings of roughly 6kW each — a layout that speeds up commissioning and means any future fault traces to one string rather than the whole array.
Sitting this close to the surf changes what equipment you can spec. Standard panels corrode fast in a salt-heavy coastal environment, so the panels chosen carry an IEC 61701 Salt Mist Severity Level 8 rating and a 30-year product and performance warranty — built to keep performing on one of the harshest coastlines a solar array can face.
Once live, the system is expected to generate around 56MWh of clean energy a year at 87% efficiency, cutting the club’s power costs by roughly 64% — about $9,338 annually, or an estimated $170,717 over 30 years. That’s money the club can now put toward lifesaving gear, training and junior programmes instead of power bills.
The system totals 43.68kW across 96 solar panels.
The Install
The physical install came together in four days, with five installers on site at the busiest point. String layout, cable routing and commissioning steps were all mapped out before the crew arrived, which is what let the job move fast without the club having to close its doors — bookings and day-to-day operations carried on around the work.
It also doubled as a real training ground. Electrical apprentices worked the mounting, DC cabling, inverter installation and commissioning stages alongside experienced solar electricians, picking up hands-on renewable energy experience most apprenticeships don’t offer this early — a fitting parallel to a club built around developing young people.
The club’s roof had recently been replaced, so the mounting system was fixed to existing penetration points only, signed off by Metalcraft and Surf Life Saving New Zealand. No new roof penetrations, and the roofing warranty stayed fully intact.
Club Manager Ange Moore summed up the experience:
"From the moment the Trilect Solar crew arrived, it was clear they knew exactly what they were doing. Panels went up with speed and precision, the process was seamless, and the club was barely aware they were there."
The system is projected to cut the club’s power costs by around 64% a year.
What It Adds Up To
Beyond the power bill, the system is forecast to keep roughly 19,100kg of coal and 16,806 litres of petrol worth of emissions out of the atmosphere each year — the annual equivalent of 1,012 trees — with a PV monitoring platform giving the club real-time visibility of performance, including early warning if salt film starts affecting output.
A club running on volunteers and junior subs was never going to fund a system like this on its own, which is exactly why Entelar Energy and Trilect Solar structured it as a shared contribution rather than a commercial job. It’s also given both companies a proven, repeatable model for the 70-plus other surf lifesaving clubs around New Zealand facing the same rising power costs.
For Trilect Solar, Red Beach is what happens when a solar project is treated as more than a transaction — it’s an investment in the people who keep our beaches safe, and in the apprentices who’ll be building New Zealand’s clean energy future long after this array is switched on.
The solar system frees up funds the club can put straight into lifesaving gear and training.
frequently asked questions
How big is the Red Beach Surf Life Saving Club solar system?
It’s a 43.68kW DC solar PV array, made up of 96 SunPower Performance 7 modules paired with a 29.9kW three-phase Smart String Inverter.
How much will the club save on power costs?
The system is expected to cut the club’s power costs by around 64%, saving approximately $9,338 a year and an estimated $170,717 over 30 years.
Who paid for the project?
Entelar Energy and Trilect Solar together covered around 90% of the total project cost, leaving the club to fund only a small fraction of a system that would otherwise have been well out of reach. Entelar Energy supplied and funded the panels and inverter technology, while Trilect Solar donated the system design, project management, labour, installation and commissioning.
Why does the system need salt-resistant equipment?
The club sits metres from the Hibiscus Coast surf, so standard panels would corrode quickly. The panels used carry an IEC 61701 Salt Mist Severity Level 8 rating and a 30-year product and performance warranty, built for sustained coastal salt exposure.
How long did the installation take?
The physical install was completed in four days, with up to five installers on site at the busiest point, and was scheduled around the club’s normal bookings and operations.
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