EMC to build Australia's largest battery storage system for the MRO
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6 October 2015
CSIRO has appointed Energy Made Clean (EMC) to engineer, procure and construct a 2.5 MWh battery storage system at the Murchison Radio astronomy Observatory (MRO), home to CSIRO’s newest radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).
The battery system will be 100% designed, engineered and constructed in EMC’s Perth facility and construction will be completed by the first quarter of 2016. The containerised, rapidly deployable solution will be fully tested and commissioned in Perth before being transported to site for connection to a 1.6MW solar generator also to be engineered and built by EMC.
The remote outback region where ASKAP is located is ideal for radio astronomy due to a low population density and lack of man-made signals that would otherwise interrupt the telescope’s ability to receive weak astronomical signals from deep space. However, the challenges of building a scientific facility in such a remote location require design and infrastructure solutions.
John Davidson, the Managing Director of EMC said, “Remote power supply to the radio telescope is critical to the ASKAP project 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 automated clean energy innovation for a rapidly growing market”.
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.