Renewable vitality funding fund Photo voltaic Bay and logistic firm Logos have commenced building of Australia’s largest roof-mounted photo voltaic storage undertaking, airlifting within the first of greater than 120,000 photo voltaic panels that will probably be put in atop an 800,000 sqm industrial warehousing facility in south-western Sydney.
Photo voltaic Bay has signed a 30-year settlement with Logos to put in and function 60 MW of rooftop photo voltaic PV and 150 MWh of battery vitality storage to supply community and retail vitality companies to tenants of the Moorebank Logistics Park (MLP) close to Port Botany within the New South Wales capital.
MLP is Australia’s largest intermodal freight facility. The 243-hectare web site connects Port Botany with rail terminals and warehousing, performing as a nationwide distribution heart for interstate operations.
Logos, which was a part of a consortium that bought the power in 2021 in an AUD1.67 billion ($1.11 billion) deal, will fund the development of the 60 MW rooftop photo voltaic PV array and 150 MWh battery vitality storage system with Sydney-based Photo voltaic Bay delivering the continued operation of the embedded community.
“This maximizes outcomes for all concerned – from Solar Bay because the operator, to Logos because the funding and improvement supervisor, to our tenants, with the economies of scale at MLP providing a definite, market-leading benefit with the quantity of renewable vitality offered by way of a microgrid,” Logos Australia and New Zealand head Darren Searle stated.
As soon as totally operational the precinct-wide microgrid, which is able to function at a mixture of 11 kV and 33 kV, will probably be able to supplying 100% of MLP’s vitality necessities throughout sunlight hours and can supply electrical energy from an off-site wind farm to provide renewable electrical energy exterior peak photo voltaic era intervals.
Photo voltaic Bay funding director James Doyle stated the rooftop photo voltaic and battery storage system will join into the excessive voltage community at a number of factors, with complementary know-how akin to megawatt-scale electrical car/truck quick chargers additionally capable of be built-in all through the precinct.
“MLP is a main instance of the convergence between property and vitality infrastructure that we’re seeing throughout Australia and New Zealand,” Searle stated. “A precinct-wide microgrid facilitates the on-site set up of utility scale photo voltaic and batteries, offering tenants with the flexibility to entry an enormous quantity of renewable electrical energy that matches the size of their electrified operations.”
The mixed capability of the rooftop photo voltaic and battery vitality will generate sufficient clear vitality to energy the equal of 40,000 properties, avoiding an estimated 67.2 kilotonnes of carbon emissions annually.
The businesses stated the affect of the MLP photo voltaic and battery microgrid will prolong far past the location itself and can “play a key function within the state, regional and native economies given its measurement, scale and affect”.
“With quite a lot of the numerous hundreds at MLP capable of be flexed in actual time, the location will even work together with the Nationwide Power Market (NEM),” the businesses stated in an announcement. “It will … optimize the consumption of on-site era and supply companies again to the NEM when required, by way of demand response and the ancillary market.”
Whereas already huge, the rooftop photo voltaic system is anticipated to develop even additional. With greater than 800,000sqm of roof area on the precinct, the 243-hectare web site has the capability to accommodate as much as 130 MW of rooftop photo voltaic, able to producing 183 GWh of electrical energy each year.
Doyle stated future phases of the microgrid could possibly be used to fulfill altering wants of tenants, together with thermal storage, hydrogen era and provide, and associated low-emission infrastructure.
“With over 800,000sqm of rooftop photo voltaic doable we will additionally help within the decarbonization of transport and make the most of surplus era to provide low emission fuels akin to hydrogen,” he stated.
