Alice Springs Solar Power Feasibility

Written by Mike Fideli, Energy Advisory Leader, Consulting Team

Located approximately 1,500 kilometres halfway between Darwin and Adelaide in Australia's Northern Territory, lies a small town called Alice springs. Being a popular gateway for exploring Australia’s interior desert region (“The Red Centre”); as shown in the image below, Alice springs has one of the longest average annual sunshine durations in Australia.

The inspections were conducted at 28 Council sites, without an existing solar power plan. We made the following findings:

• 2 sites had insufficient roof and ground space; hence, the report recommended that the Alice Springs Town Council builds structures to support solar panels and also act as a shade for visitors.
• 14 sites had analogue or digital meters that are not capable of bidirectional metering; hence, require to be upgraded prior to, or together with, the solar power installations.
• Electrical switchboards at 11 sites were found to require upgrades prior to, or together with, the installation. The required upgrades were mainly either replacement of incompatible protection devices or the creation of additional space for solar protection devices.

The analysis of the electricity consumption data together with the information collected during site inspections resulted in recommending Council to install solar power plants with capacity ranging between 1.2kW and 30kW.

The aggregated total energy cost savings across the 28 sites is estimated to be approximately 60% over the 20-year life of the solar power plants.

The payback period for individual sites ranges from 4 – 8 years. 

Case Study Snapshot