Adelaide Airport's solar system is now complete

Adelaide Airport’s rooftop solar power system, originally announced in October 2015 and claimed to be the largest rooftop solar power system in South Australia, has begun generating electricity, contributing to almost 10% of the airport’s total energy consumption.

The short-term multistorey car park rooftop solar power system is expected to offset 100% of the car park’s electricity consumption, with excess power generated to be consumed within the main terminal. The new system brings the total rooftop solar capacity to 1.28 MW.

Solgen Energy Group Executive General Manager David Naismith said Solgen designed the 1.17 MW solar power system under a competitive bid process. He said, “The system that Solgen delivered represents an optimal solution to site constraints such as shade from other existing and potential infrastructure while ensuring financial and environmental goals are exceeded.

“Working with the fabric of the building, the additional electrical infrastructure, including the first installation in Australia of SMA’s Sunny Tripower 60 inverters, was comfortably integrated into the car park,” Naismith continued. “With these inverters, Solgen completely customised the solar distribution board and inverters into a single room on the top level of the car park, ensuring that valuable car parking space was not lost.”

Almost 4500 Trinasmart solar panels were installed, mitigating the effects of shading across the array from existing and potential infrastructure. In addition, a remote single switch will allow immediate shutdown at panel level, which enhances the overall safety of the system in the event of an emergency.

“Most solar panels are installed in ‘strings’ with each panel linked to others, which means that in the event of shading the output of all the panels in the ‘string’ is reduced,” explained Trina Solar Sales Manager Govind Kant.

“Our Trinasmart system is able to optimise the maximum output of each panel independently, which means it is the perfect solution for installations where shading of the solar panels can occur during the day. This minimises the impact of shading and translates directly into dollars saved off the electricity bill.”