60Kw LG Solar System On 9 Storey Residential Apartments

Project Overview

Moore Park Gardens is a prestigious residential apartment complex situated on the 2.6 hectare site of the historic Resch’s Waverly Brewery in Sydney, opposite Moore Park. It incorporates sensitive restoration and redevelopment of the remaining heritage buildings and integrated newer apartment blocks.

The strata committee of The Bowers and Argyle buildings, then headed by David Wilson, wanted to make their own contribution to sustainability by reducing emissions by installing solar panels, as well as making a significant impact on the electrical costs of powering the common areas.

SolarBright was approached by the committee to design an appropriate solar system to meet these goals. As an LG Authorised Solar Platinum Partner and SMA Powerup Partner, we turned to the best solar technology: LG NeON 2 solar panels and SMA inverters, offering a system that would deliver maximum output per square meter with the LG panels. The highly efficient SMA inverters would maximise power yield from the system and allow comprehensive monitoring and management with the SMA Connect app.

Thee committee solicited proposals from several solar companies. The project presented unique challenges due to the nature of the site. As a Clean Energy Council Approved Solar Retailer with expertise covering of thousands of solar projects, SolarBright was up to the challenge and selected by the strata committee to install the 30kW LG solar systems on each of the Argyle and Bowers buildings.

David Wilson says, “SolarBright were the best one to deal with of all. The management have been terrific right from the start. We had meetings on site working through alternatives down to the final specifications.”

Regarding the installation he says, “It’s been done very professionally like the whole operation we have seen from SolarBright…they’ve been terrific.”

Project Challenges

This project presented  challenges. Each apartment block was nine stories tall. Due to the nature of the access road with it being brick paved and with the carpark on either side of the road being lined with trees, this meant that a crane could not be used to lift the panels and mounting rails to the roof.

The SolarBright team had to man handle all of the kit into position. The mounting rails were lifted up vertically through the stairwells. The 86 350Watt LG NeON®2 panels for each building (total 172) had to be taken by lift to the ninth floor and then carried up 2 flights of stairs into the roof cavity and positioned ready for installation.

The buildings are 100m apart but had a single NMI with the electrical board located in the Argyle building on the western end of the site, necessitating long cable runs through the underground carpark. Connecting the systems into building electrical system was also complex.

SMA Inverters

As an SMA Powerup partner, SolarBright specified SMA Sunny Tripower inverters for the solution. SMA are the leader in the Australian market, with SMA inverters producing over 35% of all solar energy in the country.

Each 30kW system required a 25kW and a 5kW SMA inverter.

The major reasons that the SMA inverters were recommended by SolarBright and chosen by the customer are:

• The high efficiency of 98.2% of the inverters ensures maximum yield from each solar system, maximising the sustainability aspect of the project and the impact on the power costs of powering the common areas.
• The powerful SMA Connect inverter management application delivers ease of management and monitoring of the inverters and system power production.
• European engineering and the use of robust components ensure reliability and longer project life spans.
• Peace of mind with a 5+5 year warranty.