A COMPLETED solar and energy storage project at Roseworthy is generating an average of 42 per cent of the needs of the local University of Adelaide campus.

The $7 million project will reduce the university’s peak electricity demand, reduce energy costs and increase the resilience of energy supply to the Roseworthy campus.

A solar farm of 3200 panels produces up to 1.2 megawatt (MW) of power and is connected to a hybrid battery storage solution – a combination of Tesla lithium-ion batteries and UniEnergy Technologies (UET) Vanadium flow batteries – with a capacity of 420/1200kWh.

A digital microgrid controller chooses when to best charge and discharge the batteries.

University of Adelaide project manager Rob Newcombe said the solar farm offset nearly 90 per cent of the Roseworthy campus’s electrical load on its first full day of operation, April last year.

“In the simplest of terms, this meant powering up the animal hospitals, teaching labs, our lecture theatres and offices, research facilities, all our computers and devices, the dining hall, swimming pool, the lights on the oval, the gym and student housing, all off the back of renewable energy,” he said.

“Although this outstanding first-day result occurred during mid-semester break, when the campus was quieter than usual, it was still an extraordinary achievement on day one.”

Roseworthy campus dean Wayne Hein said the project would also have the important benefit of providing research and learning opportunities to researchers and students.

“The project will be a living laboratory, providing our researchers with opportunities for projects in areas including energy management, grid segregation, low-cost fault detection systems, system resilience, and cybersecurity,” he said.

“There will also be opportunities for students to learn, with plenty of scope to incorporate different aspects of the facility into university courses and projects for students studying everything from engineering, cybersecurity and space, through to environmental science.”

The completion of the Roseworthy Solar and Energy Storage project was celebrated at an opening event at the Roseworthy campus on Thursday.

The event was attended by state Energy Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan, with the project having been supported with a $778,500 grant from the South Australian Renewable Technology Fund in 2018.

“This Solar and Energy Storage Project is one of many supported by the $150 million Renewable Technology Fund, which is supporting next-generation, renewable energy storage projects across the state,” Mr van Holst Pellekaan said.

University of Adelaide chief operating officer Bruce Lines said the solar project was the largest in the university’s history and a key strategy under the campus sustainability plan, which outlines a commitment to decreasing the environmental impact of operations.