Southland District Council Mayor Rob Scott said after decades of battling through expensive power bills, residents could find solace in a solar farm.
However, he said funding from central government would be paramount in building the project on the island of 400 residents.
The average Stewart Island/Rakiura household spends $5100 per year on electricity, 120% more than the national average of $2400, despite consuming 40% less electricity, as the island's power is supplied by diesel generators which were installed in 1988.
Following years of debate and reports which aimed to tackle the issue, about 80 residents were part of a public meeting yesterday where a possible solution was presented to them.
Mr Scott said a range of generation options including wind, hydro and undersea cables to connect to the mainland grid were looked at, but they found solar photovoltaics, together with battery energy storage, would be the better pathway.
PTM Consulting and Infratec were the companies engaged by the council to identify and scope short and medium to long-term options to replace diesel generation and reduce electricity bills on Rakiura.
Four options were presented by them, but the community board chose to go with 2000kW solar, 4000kW battery which would create 76% savings in diesel consumption in its first year.
The report states this option would cost $7million and the payback period would be five to eight years.
"To have 76% savings in diesel is quite a big hit.
"What we're looking at is kind of like a no-regrets, quick-win, on-the-ground approach to get the savings through as fast as possible, but also allow for further refinements down the track," Mr Scott said.
In the first stage, several locations were being looked at for the solar farm.
Wind and hydro would be considered in the second stage.
"Those are not off the table, but they just take a bit more work to get over the line and we need to do a bit more research there."
For the solar farm to be feasible, the Southland District Council needed government help.
Mr Scott said the council was applying to the Regional Infrastructure Fund.
This was quite important because the residents could not afford to pay the cost of the infrastructure as there were only 400 people on the island, he said.
"It's quite a big ask to fund millions of dollars worth of infrastructure ... we're not going to pump capital into the government multiple times, this is a one-off, and then it's going to provide that long-term tangible benefit to the island.
"And they know they are still going to pay more than the rest of the country's paying.
"And, I mean, they can accept that, but it needs to be a reasonable amount and it's certainly not that at the moment."
Mr Scott said the costs of the project would be localised to the island's residents and would not affect the rest of ratepayers across the district.
He believed the meeting was very successful and residents were pleased with the outcome.
"I mean, there was a round of applause at the end of the meeting, which could have said to me that everyone's happy. I think the residents are ready for some action on the ground here.
"We don't need any more reports that don't go anywhere, we need to actually get some action."
