FollowAustralia’s largest flat-panel photovoltaic solar power system has been installed at The University of Queensland in Brisbane. The system generates 1.22 megawatts of power from the sun, harvested from 5004 panels on the rooftops of four of UQ’s biggest buildings.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield said the UQ Solar Array would provide between five and six per cent of peak electricity demand at the St Lucia campus.
The solar panel installation at the University of Queensland. Photo: Stewart Gould via Brisbane Times
The asset will be shared with the community, by giving interested people access to a website showing live and historical data about the solar power generated from the UQ array.
A Brisbane based firm, Ingenero, deserves to be mentioned as it is the organization which installed the solar panels and worked on designing and engineering aspect. Besides, Trina Solar supplied the panels and will be part of related research projects. Another ASX listed organization, Redflow has supplied a 200KW zinc bromine battery for the solar panels installed at car parks. Electricity retailer Energex has donated latest equipments for monitoring purpose and the Office of Clean Energy of Queensland government has supported the project by providing monetary support. Besides all the solar panels, UQ has also installed a seven meter by six meter 8.4 KW concentrating photovoltaic array pillar, that follows the movement of sun on daily basis. Ingenero has donated for the CPV system.
It is hoped that the solar panels will produce enough power to meet the 5–7 percent needs of Campus of St. Lucia and will provide an example for other academic institutes to opt for this public-private partnership model as well as alternative energy project put together.
Source: Architecture and Design
