Questacon goes solar with 94kW array

The National Science and Technology Centre, otherwise known to just about any school student on the east coast of Australia as Questacon, has installed a high tech PV solar power station on its roof.

The Centre was founded in the early 80’s by Professor Mike Gore AM as a joint Australia-Japan Bicentennial Project, and is the first interactive science centre in Australia.

The solar system installed has a nominal generation capacity of 94kW and has been installed across the many roof areas of the centre, covering about 10% of Questacon’s annual electricity requirements.

The solar system was designed and installed in July 2014 by Laros Technologies, and uses over 360 WINAICO PV modules.

The new and unique technology in the PV system is that it uses an aerodynamically assisted, self-ballasted, non-roof-penetrating ‘Ilzosave’ PV module mounting system which makes use of the wind movement passing over the modules to actually create a partial vacuum under the modules, which in turn makes them ‘hug’ the roof surface, and become very resistant to being moved by the wind.

The successful installation means Questacon will have an efficient and reliable clean energy contribution to its electricity needs for decades to come.