World leading King Island microgrid adds 1.5MW solar farm to mix

Tasmania’s King Island has boosted its renewable energy supply – and further slashed its use of diesel fuel – with the completion of a new 1.5MW solar farm.

Hydro Tasmania – which runs the facility – says the almost six-hectare solar farm forms the newest renewable energy addition to the Bass Strait island’s off-grid power system, known as the King Island Renewable Integration Project (KIREIP).

KIREIP, co-developed by Hydro Tasmania and its subsidiary Entura – and backed by federal government funding from Arena – has so far cut the Island’s annual diesel consumption in half.

Construction works for the $3.35 million new solar farm have been completed by GEM Energy and Hydro Tas says the 1.5MW plant will soon be connected to the local KI grid.

The solar farm joins 2.5MW of wind generation, 470kW of solar PV, two 1 MVA flywheels, a 3 MW/1.5 MWh battery, a 1.5 MW dynamic resistor and an aggregated fast customer demand response system, managed through an advanced hybrid control system.

The plan is to supply an average of around 65% of the Island’s power supply from renewables, but it can already achieve a 100% renewable supply – as it did in late 2015 for 33 hours straight, making it the first megawatt class off-grid system to do so in the world.

A live dashboard shows the energy mix on the island at any given point in time.

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve slashed diesel consumption on King Island by 50 per cent,” said Hydro Tasmania CEO Ian Brooksbank.

“That saves 2.1 million litres of diesel and cuts carbon emissions by 5,700 tonnes a year.

“The new solar farm will save an additional 300,000 litres in diesel and 800 tonnes in carbon emissions annually and deliver even greater reliability in electricity supply for local homes and businesses.”

Brooksbank says King Island, which installed its first wind turbines 25 years ago, has become a renewable energy blueprint for isolated off-grid communities in Australia and around the world.

“This type of hybrid, renewable energy system is also a model for the national electricity market,” he said on Tuesday.

“How we integrate wind, solar and storage, while reducing fossil fuels and maintaining grid stability, is an important lesson as the nation transitions to renewable energy.”