Project study - Roper Valley

Bushlight Remote Homeland Upgrade - Roper Valley

We upgraded this site, consisting of 5 simple houses nestled beside some impressive ancient rock formations, to expand the solar array, replace the lead-acid batteries with lithium iron, and upgrade the solar charging regime to have the majority AC-coupled to meet the site conditions (a long run from the array to the power shed) with some additional DC coupled solar for system reliability and ease of recovery in case of battery overuse.

Upgrades included:

- Solar capacity increased from 10.4 kW to 24 kW

- Battery upgraded to 82 kWh of Lithium Iron rack mounted PPE

- Power output now 15 kW continuous

We have modelled a North-South array orientation to achieve a good balance of wet season (high demand) production and critical early morning charging

3 x 5 kW Fronius AC-coupled solar inverters work well at high ambient temperatures

New solar array increased capacity by more than double, on new structure in the same enclosed space

Custom cabinet houses DC and AC Switchboards as well as DC coupled solar charger

PPE Lithium Iron battery racks in dedicated battery room

Main battery isolator