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Diesel-powered electricity on Stewart Island has become an embarrassment to the community, former Southland district councillor Bruce Ford says.
In his submission to the Southland Murihiku Regional Energy Strategy, he urged for action to be taken and listed a throng of options and combinations available to the powers that be.
Mr Ford was a council representative from 1978 to 2022 and was an advocate for a solution to the problem of power in the town — being part of the launching of the diesel plant in 1988.
He would like to see someone appointed to spearhead a solution through to completion, he said.
"It will need someone who will tackle it full on. I’m happy to be part of it ... But you really need some strong support behind it. We haven’t been taken seriously."
There had been a history of workable solutions ending up in a "too-hard basket"after encountering bureaucratic walls and closed cheque books, he said.
Mr Ford believed there already had been enough research and multitudes of reports produced over decades to allow for a definitive answer to be reached.
A low-interest Crown loan, like the Te Anau wastewater plant development fund, could be a reasonable option that would allow sustainable power options to be developed on the island, he said.
Like the Te Anau plant, the cost would then be spread across the generations and visitors that would use it in years to come.
The island’s 400 residents hosted up to 400,000 visitors each year, which placed additional burdens on infrastructure.
The island presently uses about 360,000 litres a year to power its electricity generators which discharged almost one million kilograms of carbon dioxide into the Rakiura Air Shed.
During the Easter period, the island used a record 560kw of power.
One suggestion included connecting the island with an undersea cable to the national grid.
"At the rate and cost of current diesel generation, the pay-back would be short and obvious."
A combination of wind and hydro-power generation was another suggestion.
He urged to have something sorted as tourist facilities on the island had reached capacity levels, with the Doc huts in the Rakiura National Park frequently fully booked.
"The lack of decisive progress form any years now has stifled business growth and sustainability, and again, tourist services are at capacity and the industry require stimulation if we are to continue to grow sustainability.
If a solution was not found soon the island was at risk of "sliding back."
Mr Ford said Stewart Islanders had not forgotten the "major environmental calamity" when 230,000 litres of diesel polluted the coastline after Korean Dong Won grounded on Breaksea Island in 1998. It was a constant reminder of what could happen with our fuel shipments, he said.
"The basic appalling cost of the present power generation and the embarrassment of having to explain to our green demographic how that power is generated."