Diab Engineering in Geraldton, Western Australia, has gone solar in a big way.
Designed, installed and commissioned by Perth and Brisbane based Infinite Energy, the 99.8kW rooftop system consists of 416 solar panels; plus 6 SMA Sunny Tripower inverters supplied by Energy Matters’ sister company, Apollo Energy.
The array is mounted using an Australian designed and manufactured SunLock mounting system; also provided via Apollo Energy.
Diab Engineering’s installation incorporates a special system that monitors electricity consumption on the site and solar production in real time. The system adjusts the output of the inverters to ensure the array does not produce more electricity than site requirements.
This “non-export” feature has been implemented in order to meet Western Power’s strict requirements for large systems of this nature.
Monitoring and control of the inverters, protection and optimisation systems can be carried out remotely and a GreenSense monitoring platform displays solar production, site consumption, temperatures, irradiance and other system/environmental vitals.
50% of the funding for the array was provided under the Federal Government’s Clean Technology Investment Program, which Infinite Energy assisted in obtaining on behalf of Diab Engineering.
The Clean Technology Investment Program helps manufacturers invest in energy-efficient capital equipment and low-emission technologies, processes and products.
Diab Engineering also received the value of the renewable energy certificates accompanying the system under the Solar Credits Scheme, taking the total external funding level to more than 60% of the total project cost.
According to Energy Matters, even without Clean Technology Investment Program funding, if businesses are paying more than 20c/kWh for daytime electricity usage, a system sized to provide daytime consumption will provide a payback time of between 5 and 7 years; depending on installation location.
