New community Solar Farm Launches in Queensland

Nov. 11, 2012 - PRLog -- Queensland’s first solar farm was officially launched this week and is one of several firsts in solar innovation, according to project builder Ingenero.

The Fraser Coast Community Solar Farm at Hervey Bay cost $2.7 million and is Queensland’s largest ground-mounted solar installation and first solar farm.

The farm consists of 1,630 ground-mounted monocrystalline Suntech solar panels, two 330kW PowerOne central inverters and utilised unique pile-driven foundations by Schletter, a German manufacturer of solar mounting systems.

According to Ingenero CEO Steve McRae, the solar farm uses world-class panel mounting technology and central inverters.

Mr McRae also said the 400 kilowatt (kW) solar installation showcases a number of firsts for Queensland.

"This installation is one of only a few in Australia to use central inverters to connect to the grid and is paving the way for future large-scale solar projects of this kind. Central inverters are far more cost effective at large scale compared to the small string inverters used in residential installations," he said.

The installation was fully funded by the Queensland Government, which will offset power usage for local organisation Wide Bay Water Corporation.

Ingenero has also sponsored the installation of a solar demonstration area at the site, consisting of five small solar systems built using five different solar panel technologies. The idea of the demonstration site is to allow comparisons of the capabilities of different solar technologies used in residential solar installations.

“Ingenero is always looking for ways to educate the community about solar technology. The demonstration site at Fraser Coast will be linked into Ingenero's own online monitoring software, EcoWatt, allowing online monitoring of performance. What better way to compare solar technologies than to watch the performance of five different systems under the same weather conditions.”

The project will be launched Wednesday 7 November. Ingenero will join Queensland Minister for Energy and Water Supply Mark McArdle and Wide Bay Water Corporation executives.

View the performance of the demonstration site’s five technologies using Ingenero's online performance monitoring software, EcoWatt, in real-time here http://www.ingenero.com.au/fraser-coast-community-solar-farm