A study funded by ARENA and the APVI has found that there could be significant benefits to supporting existing diesel generator power stations in remote indigenous communities with distributed solar photovoltaics (PV) on household rooftops, compared to a centralised ground-mounted PV system.
The study investigated the potential techno-economic benefits to Power and Water Corporation, comparing sources of solar to support community loads in remote communities serviced by PWC’s not-for-profit subsidiary Indigenous Essential Services Pty Ltd (IES).
The study authors, Ekistica – a technical consultancy firm based in Central Australia – compared an aggregation of rooftop PV, with centralised ground-mounted solar, both integrated with the central power station in the community, generating power in conjunction with existing diesel generators. The rooftop solar differs from conventional residential rooftop PV systems in that they don’t service individual loads of residential sites that they are installed at.
The full media release can be found here.