The international trade association forsuppliers of broadcast and media technology IABM has given itsInternational Award for Excellence in Sustainability to BroadcastAustralia for installing a solar battery solution designed anddelivered by Photon Energy. In 2014, Photon Energy commissioned aunique 39 kWp / 215 kWh solar storage system, which delivers cleanenergy to a radio antenna in Muswellbrook, Australia.
The now award-winning pilot project hasdemonstrated the reliability of solar power in demandingconditions. The radio broadcast tower delivers broadcasting, radio,and critical emergency services for over 50,000 end users within a500 km radius. The project was installed in cooperation with theGerman Energy Agency dena.
Photon Energy installed the unique systemin 2014 after a demanding design process, given the ruggedness andreliability demanded by the Australian outback, where many sitesare extremely remote and operate under harsh conditions. Two yearson, production and operations data clearly shows that solar poweris now a reliable and economically sensible option for powergeneration in remote areas.
“Solar with batteries is no longer onlythe realm of small power needs. Now, we can just as effectively andreliably power large infrastructure such the Muswellbrook broadcastantenna”, explains Michael Gartner, Managing Director ofPhoton Energy Australia.
The system was designed as a hybrid powerplant, providing 93 per cent of the energy needed from solar powerand battery storage and the rest from either a diesel backupgenerator or the power grid. Thanks to an automated control systemthe temperature inside the battery container is kept at stabletemperatures and the average state of charge was kept atapproximately 70 per cent. Both factors contribute to longerbattery life. The system has a production capacity of 39 kWp, whilethe 72 batteries can store 215kWh of power, producing enough solarenergy to run the Muswellbrook transmission system for up to 43hours and take just over 5.5 hours to charge at fullefficiency.
The project was not without its challenges.The solar solution needed to be reliable enough to meeting a 24hours per day load requirement, whilst still being commerciallyviable. The Muswellbrook site consumed over 40 MWh from the grid onannual basis, and therefore the system had to produce enough powerto maintain optimum performance once offline. The incumbent 15kVAdiesel generator was retrained as a backup system to counterperiods of adverse sunlight.
The solution was mobilised in 2014 andachieved savings of 38 MWh per year (equivalent to 95% of the sitesbaseline), with a complete reduction in outages and zero disruptionto services for their customers.
This project is part of the worldwide denaRenewable Energy Solutions Programme coordinated by DeutscheEnergie-Agentur GmbH (dena) – the German Energy Agency – andco-financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs andEnergy (BMWi) within the initiative „renewables – Made inGermany“.
Jan Krcmar
T +420 773 032 182
E jan.krcmar@photonenergy.com