PROJECTS · TE TAUIHU
Nine marae. Twelve days.
Solar, battery storage and water for nine marae across Marlborough, Nelson and Golden Bay
9
MARAE
12
DAYS ON SITE
156 kW
SOLAR INSTALLED
Kōmaru came to us with a brief most installers would have quoted as a two month programme: solar, batteries and water storage for nine marae spread across Marlborough, Nelson and Golden Bay.
The kaupapa is resilience. When weather closes the roads at the top of the South Island, as it did in October 2025 while these systems were still being designed, the marae is where people go. Te Hora at Canvastown has already served as a Civil Defence Centre. A marae can only do that job if the lights stay on and the water keeps running.
Funded through the Māori Climate Platform and coordinated by Kōmaru with Te Kotahi o Te Hoe, the programme put a solar and battery system on every one of the nine, with water storage going in alongside. It is the same approach we took with our marae solar programme across Tairāwhiti.
Sized to the marae, not to a catalogue
Every system is three phase. These are working community buildings, not houses. Most sites took 14.96 kW across 34 panels, with a 12 kW hybrid inverter and 20.48 kWh of battery storage.
Inverter, battery cabinet and water tanks. The whole kaupapa in one frame.
Te Āwhina and Omaka took double that: 29.92 kW, 68 panels, 20 kW inverters and 30.72 kWh of storage each. Te Āwhina is not only a marae. It carries a twenty home papakāinga, Ahurewa Church, kaumātua housing and a substantial māra kai. That system had to run a small village.
The nine marae
| Marae | Where | Solar | Panels | Storage |
| Onetahua | Pōhara, Takaka | 14.96 kW | 34 | 20.48 kWh |
| Te Āwhina | Motueka | 29.92 kW | 68 | 30.72 kWh |
| Whakatū | Nelson | 14.96 kW | 34 | 20.48 kWh |
| Te Hora | Canvastown | 14.96 kW | 34 | 20.48 kWh |
| Omaka | Blenheim | 29.92 kW | 68 | 30.72 kWh |
| Tuamatene | Grovetown | 9.24 kW | 21 | 20.48 kWh |
| Wairau Pā | Wairau Bar | 14.96 kW | 34 | 20.48 kWh |
| Hauhunga | Wairau Bar | 12.32 kW | 28 | 20.48 kWh |
| Waikawa | Picton | 14.96 kW | 34 | 20.48 kWh |
| Total | 156.2 kW | 355 | 204.8 kWh |
Longi LR5-54HTB-440M panels and Narada 51.2NESR100 batteries throughout. Storage shown at nameplate capacity.
For scale
Most New Zealand homes run a single phase system of around 5 kW. Every system here is three phase, and the two largest carry 29.92 kW each. Te Āwhina alone has to run a marae, a twenty home papakāinga, a church, kaumātua housing and a māra kai.
Twelve days
Nine separate sites. A ferry crossing. Whānau to meet at every one, and a water storage crew working the same sites in parallel. From the first day on site to the last: twelve days.
That is not a boast about speed for its own sake. Every day a crew is on site is a day the marae is a building site rather than a marae. Getting in, doing it properly and getting out again is part of the job.
Panels going up while the water crew worked the same site.
Narada modules stacked, wired and labelled.
Finished. Inverter, cabinet and switchgear.
Everything came across Cook Strait
Nine sites from Picton to Golden Bay, and every panel, battery, inverter and tank had to cross the strait first. Sequencing the freight was as much a part of the job as the install.
Everything for nine sites came across Cook Strait.
Into the Sounds, and on to nine sites from Picton to Golden Bay.
Works across all marae are substantially complete. A huge mihi to Solar Options for delivering to a high standard, general feedback to date has been overwhelmingly positive.
Anahera Nin, Director, Kōmaru Ltd
And we came back
Kōmaru budgeted a round of check ins after the first winter, to answer pātai, review how each system had actually performed, and deal with anything that had come up. We were there for it. A system nobody understands is a system nobody uses.
Done and quiet. Harakeke, panels and the hills at the top of the South.
Marae, papakāinga or community hub?
We size systems for how a place is really used, we work to a plan, and we come back afterwards. Talk to Gerry.