Energy Made Clean to build off-grid solar power station for ASKAP
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CSIRO's Lewis Ball and EMC's John Davidson. |
17 July 2015
CSIRO has appointed EMC Solar Construction to engineer, procure and construct a 1.6 MW Solar Power Station at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO), home to CSIRO’s newest radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).
The power station will comprise of more than 6,000 solar panels and a specially-designed inverter room to be built at EMC’s Osborn Park facility. In order to preserve the uniquely radio quiet environment of the MRO, and to protect the radio telescopes from harmful radio frequency interference, the inverter room will be carefully shielded and the power cables will be buried and screened.
John Davidson, the Managing Director of EMC said, “Remote power supply to the radio telescopes is critical to the success of ASKAP, and to be a part of that process is an amazing opportunity for EMC to again show case its IP and capabilities to engineer and build fully automate solar power stations in remote locations.”
EMC Solar Construction and EMC Engineering are a part of the Energy Made Clean Ltd group, and has established a very strong reputation for designing, building, owning and operating renewable energy projects since 2004.
EMC delivers practical commercial solutions to energy and carbon issues and works with corporate and government organisations of all sizes with the goal of deploying innovative and robust clean energy solutions to improve the energy profile of clients and design and implement robust but simple solutions to complex challenges.
The ability to use the power of the sun to support a portion of ASKAP’s power needs is an exciting prospect for the project, and construction of the station is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
CSIRO is constructing renewable energy solutions for the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). The ‘Sustainable Energy for the SKA’ (SESKA) project is an initiative of the Australian Government being conducted as part of the Education Investment Fund.