Western Down Regional Council Project
Western Downs Regional Areas
The Project:
515kW of solar PV installed across 12 council sites in the Western Downs region. The system sizes varied from 25kW up to 80kW per site. Sites included wastewater treatment plants, aquatic centres, corporate offices, aged care facilities and other various office premises.
Products Used:
We used Phono 270w panels for this project. We used ABB inverters for the larger sites, and Fronius for the smaller sites. Clenery ground mount and roof mount racking systems were used for all sites. For zero export and network protection we used supply partners boards (full spec provided in supporting documents). To monitor the systems we used Solar Analytics monitoring solution.
This project was won via an open tender opportunity. The core reasons cited for us winning the tender were: track record in QLD installing commercial solar energy, the use of local labour, price, products and experience.
This project involved installing some systems on flat roof with tilt supports, a 60kW ground mount system, various roof materials, multi story buildings (9 stories high) and a strict timeframe, along with the usual challenges of installing solar energy in Queensland.
One of the roof areas we had to install on was a rare Paneldek material where no bracket was accredited for installation. Our engineering team located a sample panel of the roof material in New Zealand and organised to have it sent to Australia. We tested several brackets in Australia to find a suitable solution to install panels on tilt frames on the roof material. Upon finding a suitable bracket we organised to send the sheet and bracket to s2 testing in the USA to gain the appropriate accreditation. The bracket was tested and results were sent back to Australia where we engaged Gamcorp engineering to study the data and sign off on the safety of the bracket being used on the roof material. This challenge was overcome without any cost or time burden to the end customer and the system was safely installed within the required project timeframe.
