The University of Queensland has signed a contract with First Solar (Australia) Pty Ltd for the construction of a solar PV research facility at Gatton. The 3.275MW pilot plant will incorporate more than 34,000 solar panels making it Queensland’s largest solar power installation.
First Solar will install its advanced thin film cadmium telluride PV modules on a former airstrip at the University’s Gatton Campus, 90 kilometres west of Brisbane. The facility will be funded by a $40.7 million government grant delivered via the Education Investment Fund (EIF). It is also part of the Solar Flagships Programme administered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and is expected to become operational by the end of 2014 under the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract between the University and First Solar.
The PV plant will be managed and operated by the university’s Property and Facilities Division and it will augment the university’s 1.22MW PV array completed at the main campus at St Lucia in Brisbane in 2011. That project remains Australia’s largest rooftop solar PV installation to date. The EIF package will also fund a battery storage research station to be located alongside the Gatton facility. It will also provide new laboratories for power systems and energy economics research at the St Lucia campus and at the University of New South Wales Kensington Campus in Sydney.
The Gatton project is the pilot plant for two much larger solar farms that AGL Energy and First Solar are building in western New South Wales. One of these is at Nyngan (102MW) with another at Broken Hill (53MW). The overall $450 million 155MW scheme will comprise Australia’s largest solar power plant. ARENA is providing $167 million for the project with another $64.9 million from the New South Wales government.
“Renewable energy research needs to be interdisciplinary and industry integrated to produce optimal results that are practical, efficient and attractive for industry and communities” said University of Queensland President and Vice Chancellor, Professor Peter Høj. “UQ’s reputation for excellent researchers in areas including physics, engineering and sustainability helped secure the necessary buy-in from key industry leaders and government bodies. This will in turn drive outputs that can be taken up by industry, communities and governments.
Professor Paul Meredith, Project Director from UQ’s Global Change Institute and the School of Maths and Physics, said the new facilities and associated research programme are designed to support the early stage commissioning and operation of the main power plants in New South Wales.
“Components of our research will focus on energy storage, plant optimisation, power systems and the impact of renewable energy on the national electricity market” Professor Meredith said. “We will be able to test new technology and concepts at a meaningful scale and our work will help build national capacity for research in solar power deployment. We will create one of the largest and most sophisticated facilities for solar PV research anywhere in the world.”
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