Yulara Voyages Ayers Rock Resort 1.8 MW

In March 2016, a 1.8 MW solar system was commissioned at Voyages Ayers Rock Resort. Jinko Solar supplied 1.6MW EAGLE PID free modules to this project with the balance of the project supplied by another module provider.  The project includes both roof and a ground mount systems, which ensures that energy is  produced close to where it is needed.

Jinko Solar Eagle series PID free modules were attractive to Voyages due to their quality, the strong track record of Jinko Solar delivering globally on large scale solar projects, and Jinko’s competitive price points.

Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia (“Voyages”) selected Epuron to design, build and own the project through  Yulara Solar. Energy is supplied to Voyages under an operational lease model, which more effectively shares the  long-term risks and opportunities of running solar PV systems in remote areas. This project is the first utility scale  plant to be proposed and completed by an Indigenous Land Council.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) provided a $4.7 million loan to Epuron to construct, own and maintain the $7 million solar array. Separately, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) provided $450,000 funding to Voyages for monitoring and analysis purposes.

The main motivation for Voyages to have the solar system installed was to reduce operating costs for both the resort and its existing electricity supplier (Power and Water Corporation). Prior to the installation of the solar system, Yulara relied entirely on a diesel mini grid managed by the Power and Water Corporation. The cost of running a 100% diesel system is exorbitant, which made installing the solar system not only good for the environment, but also one of the best financial investments the community could ever make.

Voyages conducted extensive feasibility analysis in conjunction with the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT), and it is anticipated that the combined system will provide approximately 15 per cent of the resort’s average electricity demand and 30 per cent during peak times.

One of the challenges of any large scale solar project is gaining agreement from the multiple stakeholders around project objectives and solar system location. This was particularly the case with the incumbent generators, multiple financiers, and existing land use patterns in such a pristine natural environment. Epuron worked with Voyages and CAT to create a design that was sensitive to the requirements of the resort whilst delivering an efficient design.

The system is expected to offset a minimum of 2733 tonnes CO2 per year. Its largest array is the ground-mounted 1 MW area in the Desert Gardens.

Brisbane Markets 1 MW

Brisbane Markets strives to provide world leading facilities and services for fruit, vegetables and flower wholesalers, retailers, provedores, secondary wholesalers, food processors, transporters, industry organisations and market support businesses.

Brisbane Markets has substantial day time electricity requirements. Its high electricity bills lead it to investigate energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities. It undertook energy audits of its building assets with one of the recommendations being to install solar PV to offset daytime grid electricity consumption. A competitive tender for solar PV was conducted by Solar Choice, with Todae Solar submitting the winning bid for the installation work. Todae Solar is one of Australia’s leading commercial solar installation companies. Todae Solar chose to use Jinko Solar 315W panels due to their quality as a leading Tier 1 panel manufacturer, the strong track record of Jinko Solar delivering globally on large scale commercial solar projects, and Jinko’ s competitive price points. The larger 72 cell panels reduced installation and labour costs in comparison with 60 cell panels. This is Queensland’ s largest privately funded rooftop solar system.
Brisbane Markets is extremely proud of the project and hopes that it will encourage other businesses to invest in similar renewable energy projects in the future.

Bendigo Hospital 200kW

The Bendigo Hospital Project is the largest regional hospital development in Victoria. The site was built by Lend Lease, a leading Australian based global property developer. Jinko Solar supplied 770pcs JKM260PP Eagle modules to this project. Leading Australian commercial solar EPC, Autonomous Energy,  has worked with Lend Lease on a range of construction projects that deliver world class commercial solar systems. Lend Lease engaged Autonomous Energy through a competitive tender process to design, supply, install and commission the 200kW solar PV system at the new Bendigo Hospital.

Public hospitals have high energy consumption compared with other commercial buildings making the cost and environmental benefits of onsite solar power generation simply too significant to ignore. The client’s aim was to build a world class quality public health facility and one of the essential components of the Bendigo Hospital Project is environmental sustainability. Bendigo Hospital chose to install the largest solar system on the available roof space so that on site clean energy power generation could be maximized.

The client required modules from a leading Tier 1 manufacturer, and Jinko Solar fitted the bill perfectly.  Jinko Solar Australia provided logistics support for the project from its Brisbane and Sydney offices and staged the supply via its Melbourne warehouse.

Bendigo Hospital undertook a comprehensive tender process, which recommended Autonomous Energy due to it offering the best solution whilst also remaining cost competitive. Autonomous Energy has a proven record in delivering solar in large, complicated construction projects that require a high degree of project management and engineering expertise.

Autonomous Energy was engaged early in the design stages and Autonomous Energy’s engineering team worked closely with the architect and builder to design and install the system. The design went through several iterations to ensure optimal renewable energy generation is achieved whilst addressing the challenge of locating many services in the same roof area. Web based solar data monitoring and integration with the hospital’s BMS was also provided.

The system is expected to offset a minimum of 328 tonnes CO2 per year.