Lake Murray Lodge is located on the largest lake in Papua New Guinea, in a very remote part of the Western Province.
Lake Murray is one of the best bird-watching areas in the Province and is well known for its large and plentiful black bass, barramundi, and saratoga. With a shoreline over 2000 kilometres long, the lake covers approximately 647 km² and increases to more than three times that size during the wet season.
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Project overview
Location
Western Province, Papua New Guinea
System Size
14.25kW
Estimated Annual Production
17,520 kWh
CO2 Avoided Annually
25 tonnes
Solar Panels
57 x REC 250W
Energy Storage
48V 1800Ah BAE Gel Battery
Mounting System
SunLock
Commissioned
2013
The developed Lake Murray Lodge overlooks the lake and is nestled among the trees on an island spit.
With diesel prices for power generation around AUD $5.00 per litre by the time it arrived via the highland road and was floated down the river, an off-grid solar panel system simply made good financial sense for Bob Bates, owner of the Lodge and Trans Niugini Tours.
Bob engaged Energy Matters’ sister company, Apollo Energy, to design a system to meet the electricity consumption requirements of the main building and 12 visitor cabins.
The result was a 14.25kW off-grid solar power system incorporating SMA inverters, BAE Gel batteries from Germany, REC Peak Energy Series panels and SunLock mounting system. SunLock was a product of Apollo Energy, designed and made in Australia.
All the components were sea-freighted into Port Moresby and then transported by plane (Bob was the pilot), river, and mud road. The system was installed and worked well before the Lodge’s grand opening.
Reliable performance since day one
The Lake Murray Lodge solar power system exceeded expectations. Once activated, it ran continuously without a single failure or need for backup diesel generation.
“Since we switched on this installation, it has never gone down, and we have never had to use a generator to top up the batteries. It’s been giving us power nonstop for well over a year,”
– Bob Bates, Owner, Lake Murray Lodge.
Lake Murray Lodge won the 2013/2014 Best Small Architectural Project award at the PNG Institute of Architects/Azko Nobel Design Excellence Awards.
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