ARENA funds 1MW solar expansion of remote solar/diesel plant

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency says it has agreed to contribute $4.6 million towards an $11.9 million expansion of one of the largest remote solar farms in Queensland.

Ergon Energy is adding an extra 1MW of ground mounted solar to the Doomadgee Solar Farm, taking the facility at the Aboriginal community in the north west of the state to 1.26MW.

ARENA says the expansion will drastically reduce the amount of diesel used at the facility and will be a demonstration project of how high levels of solar penetration can be accommodated in a diesel generating plant.

“Ergon Energy will achieve up to 100 per cent solar penetration, displacing an expected 528,000 litres of diesel per year, ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said in a statement.

He said the solar PV/diesel hybrid system will include an advanced control system with stability control and be configured to allow the diesel generators to be turned off when 100 per cent penetration is reached.

Until now, Ergon Energy has introduced only a limited amount of renewable energy such as solar into the 33 standalone power stations in which supply 38 remote communities. All use diesel generation as the primary source.

Ergon Energy initially installed a 264kW solar farm to offset approximately eight per cent of the diesel generation used by the Doomadgee community. Supporting technologies such as an advanced control system, low-load diesel, stability control and diesel-off capability will also be integrated.

Frischknecht said the project will help advance Ergon Energy’s technical capability to roll out high penetration solar PV/diesel hybrid systems into other isolated communities.

“It also has the potential to catalyse further investment in renewable solutions across Ergon Energy’s significant network, which covers 97 per cent of Queensland and provides power to more than 700,000 customers.

“Over time, this project – and others like it – will help drive down cost, making high penetration renewable solutions cost competitive with diesel.

The funds would come from ARENA’s Community and Regional Renewable Energy program, which is designed to help key regional energy distributors feed more renewable energy into off-grid communities.

Ergon Energy has started work on the project, which is due to be completed by September 2017.