We are happy to have once again worked with Lend Lease in delivering a turnkey solar car park shading system at Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre in Maroochydore, QLD. The 1.1MW Sunshine Plaza solar installation boasts Australia’s largest installation of Bifacial solar panels. 2,710 Bifacial solar panels have been architecturally designed and integrated into solar car park shading structures. It’s predicted that use of these breakthrough Bifacial solar panels will boost the total electrical output of the Sunshine Plaza installation by up to 30% compared with regular solar panels, meaning that significantly more clean energy can be produced per square metre.
The new solar shading structures cover 280 individual car parking spaces over two separate car parking areas on the top floor of the multi-storey car park, and have been carefully designed to allow easily accessible, shaded parking for customers. Our solution addressed the significant challenge of the solar car park structure being in a very high wind area.
LG’s Bifacial solar panels are a step change in solar PV technology - the breakthrough being the development of a solar cell that is active on both sides and then integrating that into a module using a transparent back-sheet so that sunlight is converted to electricity on both the front and back of the panel.
This innovative system embodies Lend Lease's commitment to continual improvement in environmental management, whilst demonstrating our capability in both designing and installing solar in unique and challenging settings without compromising on safety and performance.
We successfully managed all aspects of this solar car park project while maintaining the high safety standards of Lend Lease, Australia’s leading construction company. This project is the latest in a long line of successful large scale solar projects - incorporating solar car park shading - delivered by the Autonomous Energy team.
To view the video case study for this project, click
here.
Autonomous Energy solution
- Designed and delivered in-house by our experienced Solar PV Engineers and Project Managers.
- The key challenges relating to this solar car park was the height of the building and the spans between the columns - in a strong wind area.
- Provides weather protection for over 280 vehicles and delivers 1,059.24kWp on two separated car parks.
- Custom-designed by the Autonomous Energy team, this solar car park shading system incorporates over 190 tonnes of steel
- Features 2,710 x LG 390W NeON 2BiFacial panels. LG NeON 2 modules - with their double-sided cells and CELLO technology - absorb light from the front and the back of the cell. This specific panel is 390W in normal operation but with BiFacial gains has potential to provide up to 507W per panel. With potential power of 1,377KWp - this is Australia's most productive solar car park.
- BiFacial solar panels are a revolutionary new technology that enable solar panels to produce energy from both the front and back of the panel, at the same time. Manufactured by LG Electronics in South Korea, the breakthrough solar panels can boost efficiency by up to 30% compared with regular solar panels, depending on the specific installation.
- This BiFacial panel is ideal for solar car parks as well as projects requiring a visually pleasing solar panel and for roofs where space is tight or where future system expansions are under consideration (such as incorporating battery storage). These premium quality, high efficiency panels have excellent salt mist corrosion and wind load properties, and come with a 25 year product warranty.
- The system also features 33 x 27kw + 2 x 20kW inverters as well as optimisers
- Delivers a reduction in CO2 of 1,559 tonnes per year; and powers the equivalent of 310 homes per year