The Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre (DKASC), located on the South Steward Highway in the Northern Territory and opened in 2008, demonstrates solar technology to the general public, educators and the renewable energy industry.

The centre promotes understanding and confidence in solar technology and provides the industry with long-term system level data, proving the reliability of solar generators in an Australian context. SMA Australia has a number of inverters that are integrated into various photovoltaic (PV) installations ranging from monocrystalline to polycrystalline silicon arrays.

“We have up to 37 SMA solar inverters teamed with various solar technologies at the Centre” says SMA Managing Director, Zygmunt Nejman.

Enduring the extremes of the Alice Springs climate, SMA has both Sunny Boys and Sunny Mini Centrals in use; including Sunny Boy 2500, Sunny Mini Centrals 5000A/6000A/7000TL/9000TL and 11000TL.

“From our Sunny Boy products through to Sunny Mini Centrals, visitors will be able to see just how flexible and reliable our inverters are at meeting the needs of any grid-connected solar plant, regardless of size,” says Mr Nejman.

Converting sunlight at the Crowne Plaza Alice Springs

Displaying one of the largest rooftop-mounted solar panel systems in the Southern Hemisphere, the Crowne Plaza Alice Springs will house attendees of the Appropriate Technology Retailers Association of Australia Conference and Exhibition 2010.

Drawing on more than 300 days of sunshine every year, the PV canopy consists of 1,326 individual solar modules, and provides between 40 and 80 per cent of the hotel’s total power requirements, depending on the season. The Crowne Plaza solar installation, which took five months to construct, was completed last year and contributes towards reducing the hotel’s annual carbon footprint for CO2 emissions by 420 tonnes.

“Our intent was to minimise the hotel’s environmental impact and carbon footprint by making the property more energy efficient and reducing its reliance on fossil fuels,” says Investnorth Principal Lloyd Berger.

“The system is a vital part of improving the hotel’s energy profile, made more viable by the fact that Alice Springs has the highest solar resource of any town in the country.”

Hotel guests have the opportunity to observe the system in action throughout the hotel and engage in the benefits of the $3million investment.

There is even a dedicated solar PV television channel in every guest hotel room which links to real-time explanations of energy savings, and an animated LCD display in the hotel foyer. Both draw data from the rooftop solar arrays to demonstrate current power output, total energy generated and equivalent greenhouse gas emissions saved.

At the heart of the installation and positioned throughout the building are a team of 52 SMA Solar inverters which continually convert direct sunlight into nearly 1,500 kilowatts (kW) of power per day, or over 530,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. Based on an energy efficient household using 12 kWh of electricity per day, the system could produce enough energy to power 60 households per year.

SMA’s Sunny Mini Central (SMC) 6000A inverter, more commonly known as ‘the little giant’, was chosen as an integral part of the installation due to its first-rate efficiency and reliability to generate maximum energy yields. The SMC inverters also offered the highest degree of flexibility in plant design due to their graduated power classes, the galvanic isolation of the device and the integrated ESS DC load disconnecting unit, providing the logical choice when combining them with Sun Power’s SPR230 solar modules to complete the system.

“Given the inverter is one of the most important devices that encompasses a solar power system, we were confident that our SMC products would be the perfect partner in this project,” says Mr Nejman.

“The most impressive aspect of our German-designed and manufactured SMC inverters is their efficiency rating at 96.1 per cent, even in high ambient temperatures such as Alice Springs.”

The inverters are housed in robust die-cast casing. The integrated ventilation system, OptiCool, makes temperature management possible. Other features critical in decision criteria included the reliable tracking efficiency with OptiTrac MPP tracking, the SMA Power Balancer for three-phase grid connection, and flexibility in the electric separation for the use in both thin film modules and crystalline cells.