Aged care facility using solar to reduce energy costs

Yass Valley Aged Care (YVAC) is a provider of aged and home care services which operates in Yass, New South Wales, and has capacity for over 60 patients.

Faced with rising electricity costs from managing two facilities, the YVAC board decided it needed to invest in a financially viable energy solution that would help reduce its overall energy costs.

Rowena Abbey, Mayor of Yass and a board member of YVAC, said, “Being an aged care facility, it was important that we were able to manage effectively the cost of our operational overheads. Our electricity bills were rising steadily and we have seen increases of between 5-7% over the last two years. This was a significant concern for us as we rely on funds generously donated by the local community and support from the Yass Aged Care Foundation for our operations.”

Having seen Yass Soldiers Club switch to solar energy, Abbey felt solar was as a suitable option for YVAC. YVAC engaged Ygrene Energy to design and implement a solar panel array on the roof of the club. The installation incorporated 400 Yingli Solar YLP-50-29B multicrystalline panels, six SolarMax 15 kW 15MT2 grid-connected inverters and one SolarMax 10 kW 10MT2 inverter.

Based on the estimated annual cost savings and YVAC’s upfront investment, the solar PV system will be paid off in approximately four years.

To help YVAC monitor the solar energy outputs from its system, Ygrene Energy installed SolarMax’s remote monitoring solution, MaxMonitoring, to display high-level usage data that would allow staff to verify the systems’ production through data sent to its MaxWeb portal. A SolarMax MaxMeteo solar radiation sensor was also installed to measure the irradiance and radiation energy values to provide a qualitative assessment of the systems’ performance.

Ygrene Energy had its supplies and equipment shipped early during the day and used a telehandler to move it directly to the roof. It helped minimise unnecessary vehicle movements during peak hours and installation work was only scheduled in the middle of the day to keep noise levels at a minimum. The roof works were completed within a week to reduce any impact on its residents.

The completed 100 kW solar PV system provided close to 163,616 kWh of solar power or a third of its annual energy requirements. It reduced YVAC’s reliance on drawing electricity from the grid and its carbon emissions by 150 tonnes annually.

YVAC was able to reinvest its savings from lower electricity bills into YVAC for the benefit of the community. Abbey said, “We had maximised the utilisation of our north-facing roof space in our buildings for the panels. If we had more space available, we would have increased the size of our solar PV installation.”

The data extracted from SolarMax’s web portal allowed YVAC maintenance staff to manage the performance of the system. Its board members were also able to track energy yields and to effectively manage the operations’ budget