The University of Queensland launches the 1.22-MW solar panel array

Friday, 15 July 2011

Australia's largest rooftop photovoltaic solar energy generating system was launched to day on the University of Queensland St Lucia campus. The 1.22-MWe array cost of $7.75m. The University of Queensland funded the system with a $1.5 million contribution from the Queensland Government. UQ’s technology partners also strongly supported the project. Brisbane solar company Ingenero installed more than 5000 polycrystalline silicon solar panels across four building roofs, and also donated the SolFocus CPV array. Trina Solar, one of the world’s leading manufacturers, made the panels, and Power-One made the inverters. RedFlow, a local company established by two UQ graduates, Chris and Alex Winter, made and installed the battery. And Energex, Brisbane’s network distribution company, provided $90,000 to assist in developing specialised computer software to monitor the quality of the solar power feed and how it interacts with the local grid network

The performance of the array can be monitored from http://uq.edu.au/solarenergy/. Here are examples of instantaneous power generation curves for yesterday (14 July) and today:


Thursday, 14 July	Friday, 15 July

Yesterday was a clear sunny day with occasional clouds, which probably are the cause of the dips in the chart. Today we have overcast gray skies expecting rain sometime later during the day. In spite of that, I was pleasantly surprised to see the array generating electricity as shown on the right-hand chart above.

While geothermal energy remains as the most promising baseload renewable electricity alternative, it needs to be acknowledged that most of the market penetration in last years has been by solar (both kinds) and wind generators. In a couple of blog entries earlier this month, I mentioned a geothermal renaissance mostly based on the developments in other countries. I think the Australian geothermal industry will need to develop a coherent vision for the future of geothermal energy before similar occurs here.

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