Berwick Solar System Launch

A massive photovoltaic solar array containing more than 1500 separate panels will be officially opened at Berwick campus later this month.

The array will provide 12 per cent of campus power use and it is estimated it will save 200 tonnes in carbon dioxide being emitted into the atmosphere each year.

The Berwick installation is the second built by the uni. The first, on the roof of the Campus Centre at Clayton, was then believed to be the largest at any Australian university.

The Berwick array, however, is even larger. It is capable of producing 118KWp compared to the 70KWp at Clayton.

The installation is the latest in an integrated strategy to reduce the university’s carbon footprint and is another visible demonstration of the support for renewable energy.

For the technically minded, the system utilises technologically advanced CdTe (cadmium telluride) PV panels accounting for 113 kWp (peak power) and five other different cutting edge technology PV cell types each being 1 kWp arrays for research purposes.

The benchmarking/research area will allow students and academic staff to gain realtime figures from the different technologies.  The arrays have been fitted with adjustable mounting frames to widen the available research scope, and the area comes with an integrated weather station.           

Generated power is connected with the existing building power distribution system for parallel operation and has necessary metering to monitor the power production.

The system’s data communication is integrated into the local area network with web-based monitoring and reporting capabilities.  The performance of the system will be communicated locally by a low energy LED display located in the main foyer of Building  901.