{"id":56467,"date":"2021-11-30T05:34:55","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T19:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=56467"},"modified":"2021-11-30T05:34:55","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T19:04:55","slug":"karratha-leisureplex-solar-mb2254","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/karratha-leisureplex-solar-mb2254\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Karratha Rooftop Solar And Battery Project Awarded"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Karratha<\/p>\n

The City Of Karratha has chosen its preferred tenderer for a big rooftop solar power and battery installation at Karratha Leisureplex.<\/p>\n

Karratha is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, around 1,535 kilometres north of Perth and 240 kilometres south of Port Hedland. It has a population of approximately 16,000.<\/p>\n

Among the amenities in the regional city is the Karratha Leisureplex, which opened in June 2013. It’s been a pretty popular place, attracting more than 4 million visits since that time. The facility features a fitness centre, aquatic centre, indoor\/outdoor courts and various playing fields.<\/p>\n

It also has an eye-watering electricity bill. Council currently budgets approximately $700,000 (excl. GST) on annual electricity consumption for the facility.<\/p>\n

An improvement study was completed last year outlining various upgrades to the facility as part of a 5-year staged Master Plan. Among those upgrades is the installation of solar panels and energy storage. After a selection process was finalised at last week’s Council meeting<\/a>, West Australian Alternative Energy has been nominated as the preferred tenderer for project.<\/p>\n

How big the system will be is still to be clarified; but the overall project will result in electricity cost savings for Council of 50%. A Facebook post from Council mentions the installation will cover around 4,000 square metres of rooftop, and a study commissioned by Council leading up to the tender indicated that would equate to around a 703kW system.<\/p>\n

A system of that size installed in Karratha could generate close to 1,432,400 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year.<\/p>\n

Batteries Included<\/h2>\n

The City\u2019s 2021\/22 Annual Budget earmarked $4.15m for the project, which included $2.15m\u00a0 for a battery system. According to Council, West Australian Alternative Energy’s bid was “well within Council\u2019s Budget estimate”.<\/p>\n

As for what type\/capacity battery system is to be installed, those details are also still to be finalised. I noticed there is an existing Tesla Powerpack project in WAAE’s portfolio, which is a\u00a0 community battery at Meadow Springs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s curious a battery was considered for this initiative – I would have thought commercial solar<\/a>-only would have provided Council the best bang for buck. But the Centre is open quite long hours (e.g., 6am to 9pm Monday to Friday) and seven days a week, so maybe a battery stacks up (and backs up).<\/p>\n

With electricity costs around $700,000 a year and the system to provide 50% savings, it would still be a pretty long payback – possibly more than 10 years.\u00a0 Perhaps a battery could also provide lucrative grid services, but one of Council’s desired options was for an “Off-Grid Standalone System” rather than a hybrid system. We’ll just have to wait for the wraps to come off the final specs to see what’s what and the reasoning behind it all.<\/p>\n

The other companies that competed for the project were:<\/p>\n