City of Yarra

The City of Yarra, Victoria, have a goal to be carbon neutral. In part of their plan, solar power has been included to meet daytime usage of energy. In this project Smart Commercial Solar analysed 20 available sites with daytime usage.

 

From 9 sites, 7 sites were chosen the crown jewel being the Richmond Town Hall, a heritage listed icon, designed with interesting roof angles. Smart Commercial Solar used mirco inverters to maximize output and performance, as all sites suffered from unusual roof tops, shade or difficult wiring considerations. In addition micro inverters avoid the need for high DC voltages, this means using AC wiring from the roof increases performance and provides panel level monitoring.

 

Richmond Town Hall is an iconic historic building located a couple of kilometers from the centre of Melbourne, so the aesthetic impact of the solar system was strongly considered. The design flexibility offered by the Enphase system allowed Smart Commercial Solar to maximise the size of the array while minimising its visibility.

 

The roof’s imperfect nature required installation of modules in odd locations and orientations, which would be incredibly difficult with traditional inverters. Enphase microinverters are flexible enough for the solar arrat to fit the available roof space without impacting performance.