Safe solar for service station

The Oasis Service Station in Tuncurry, NSW, operates from the early morning until late into the night each day, draining electricity along the way. With load spikes in the morning and at night, owner and operator Stan Wilson turned to solar as a way to cut the station’s ever-rising expenses and hired Solar PV Commercial as his installer. The company came to the job knowing just what Wilson needed.

When working with a petrol station to design a suitable solar solution, safety is the highest priority. Wilson needed a safe system with technology he could trust.

“The system is located on top of the 30 x 15 m canopy, directly above the fuel dispensing facilities, with a 5000 L above-ground LPG gas tank close by,” he explained. “There is also large underground storage for the petroleum products, which have to be vented to the atmosphere.

“I felt that standard single inverters posed a potential safety risk due to the high DC voltages being carried in the cables from the panels to the inverter. Then Solar PV recommended Enphase microinverters, and I knew it was a much safer alternative.”

Typical string inverter systems can carry voltages of up to 600 VDC down the cables to the inverters. Enphase microinverters receive extra-low DC voltages of around 30 VDC on a sunny day, with a maximum of 48 VDC, from each single module. From the microinverter onwards, standard AC voltage is carried through the cables to the main switchboard, no different than other electrical components on-site.

While string inverters increase safety risks by requiring high-voltage DC cables to be run across the roof surface, Enphase microinverters are designed with an all-AC approach to reduce voltage and require a lower level of external wiring and cabling insulation to further minimise hazardous safety risks. The company’s simple plug-and-play design makes it easy for Wilson to expand his system and add more microinverters in the future.

The 20 kW Enphase system will deliver roughly 50% of Wilson’s daytime energy needs from solar power. Furthermore, Enphase Enlighten, connected with E Gauge monitoring, provides a way for him to track performance of the system. Through Enlighten, Wilson can adjust the station’s power consumption patterns to get maximum benefit from his solar investment, relying on grid-supplied power only when necessary.