The $1.4 million pilot plant, which is believed to be a world’s first, was delivered, assembled and fully functional in just one week at the contractor’s 350-bed Combabula accommodation village on the Australia Pacific LNG project.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which has been supporting the technology since its inception in late 2013, said this performance was a good start in proving the plant as a cheaper, flexible and more environmentally-friendly alternative to diesel generators.

“The Laing O’Rourke solution is a real game-changer – it provides off-grid locations with a viable energy alternative to a portion of expensive, trucked-in diesel and overcomes the barriers and risks associated with permanent, fixed framed solar installations,” ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said.

“The plant can be scaled up or down by adding or removing power modules and can be packed up and moved elsewhere when it is no longer needed.

“This allows the solar panels to be re-used several times over their lifespan and is suitable for construction projects, mine sites and other applications where temporary power is required.”

A time lapse video shows the fast assembly of the plant onsite.  

 

 

 

The pilot plant comprises 134 kilowatts of solar photovoltaic capacity, as well as one megawatt of diesel generators (including diesel stand-by). It will power the Combabula accommodation village for a year, after which time it will be packed-up and redeployed to another site.

Laing O’Rourke is also in the process of making the system commercially available to the broader market. 

“By bringing together our R&D, engineering, fabrication, delivery and plant hire business units and the strong support from ARENA, we’ve ultimately produced an innovative new solution that will potentially change the renewable energy landscape in regional and remote Australia,” Laing O’Rourke managing director Cathal O’Rourke said.

“We believe this investment and innovation could provide huge benefits to remote communities, business operations and construction projects in the future, as well as have particular benefits for events that require rapid deployment of power units – such as disaster recovery.”

With the ambition to make renewable energy a standard on remote sites, Laing O’Rourke expects that with time and, as customers’ familiarity with solar-diesel increases and the cost of batteries decreases, it can ultimately make the plant solely solar.