Australia’s largest flat-panel photovoltaic solar power system has been installed at The University of Queensland in Brisbane.

The system generates 1.22 megawatts of power from the sun, harvested from 5004 panels on the rooftops of four of UQ's biggest buildings.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfield said the UQ Solar Array would provide between five and six per cent of peak electricity demand at the St Lucia campus.

The solar panel installation at the University of Queensland. Photo: Stewart Gould via Brisbane Times

The asset will be shared with the community, by giving interested people access to a website showing live and historical data about the solar power generated from the UQ array.

“The project is enhanced by its strong industry partnerships, including research agreements with a number of world-leading companies in renewable power,” Professor Greenfield said.

UQ will undertake ongoing solar research projects with:

Brisbane firm Ingenero, which installed the array, and worked on its design and engineering

  • Trina Solar, which supplied the panels and will be part of several research projects, one involving the first large-scale field test of a prototype device that increases the efficiency of solar panels, developed by NYSE-listed company National Semiconductor
  • ASX-listed, Brisbane-based RedFlow, which supplied a prototype 200kW zinc bromine battery bank that is connected to a 339kW section of solar panels on one of UQ's multi-storey carparks
  • Electricity wholesaler and retailer Energex, which donated for state-of-the-art equipment to allow high-quality monitoring and analysis of the power feed from the UQ solar array
  • The Queensland Government's Office of Clean Energy, which provided million towards the overall cost of the UQ Solar Array

Separate to the rooftop panels, UQ has installed a ground-mounted, seven-metre-by-six metre 8.4 kilowatt concentrating photovoltaic array (CPV) that follows the sun each day as it moves across the sky.

Ingenero donated the SolFocus CPV array to allow UQ researchers to undertake detailed comparisons with a different type of solar technology.

Designing and installing Australia's biggest rooftop PV solar power system

drew on the combined resources and significant expertise of UQ academics and engineers, working with industry leaders.

UQ's Property & Facilities division and UQ's School of Mathematics and Physics worked closely with engineering consultants Aurecon and lead contractor Ingenero.

The 1.22 megawatt UQ Solar array is almost 25 per cent larger than any other flat-panel PV system in Australia, with the added complexity of being split between four buildings.