A well known Newcastle organisation recently approached us to come up with a cost efficient solution to reduce their $50,000 plus annual electricity bill which was not only increasing every year but gradually making more and more of an impact on their bottom line.
The challenge was to design an optimised solar panel array which would not only provide sufficient power for the day to day power usage but would also generate sufficient power to charge an 80 kilowatt hour battery for late afternoon and evening power requirements.
Our engineers came up with a design which would not only deliver the required power but also provide significant export back to the grid on full sunny days and by so doing create an auxiliary income to help offset the cost of drawing from the grid on heavily overcast / rainy days.
Without being too specific the specifications were as follows:
77 solar panels × 475W = 36.575 kW of DC solar power.
The 80 kWh of battery storage requires a hybrid inverter that manages solar and battery together. The ideal product is the Sigen PV 50M1-HYA-AU. The Australia-certified version of Sigenergy’s 50 kW three-phase commercial hybrid inverter (see (https://www.sigenergy.com/au/products/business-inverter)
DC/AC ratio: 36.575 kW ÷ 50 kW = 0.73, comfortably within range.
Accepts up to 100,000 Wp of solar input, plenty of headroom for this 36.575 kW array.
4 MPPT inputs, 2 strings per MPPT, each accepting up to 32A, good flexibility for the Max DC input voltage: 1,100V.
Connects directly to SigenStack batteries, no extra hardware required.
IP66 rated, AFCI arc-fault protection, fully compliant with AS/NZS 4777.2.
BATTERY: 7 × SigenStack BAT 12.0 = 84.42 kWh
Each module (SigenStack BAT 12.0) stores 12.06 kWh, LiFePO₄ chemistry, 10,000 cycle life.
Modules stack floor-standing.
7 modules = 84.42 kWh, clearing the 80 kWh target with one full stack.
The complete engineering specifications form a 23 page A4 document which to many people sounds like a complete overkill but rest assured that without a full electrical engineering design the likelihood of future compliance and potentially insurance issues increases exponentially.
If you commercial electricity bill is compromising your business contact us for a free commercial solar system consultation.