In September 2020, Yates Electrical Services Group (YES Group) and Sustainable Energy Infrastructure (SEI) entered into a long-term agreement to design, develop, own, operate and maintain five mid-large scale solar farm projects in regional South Australia.
The YES Group is a long-term leader in delivering renewable energy solutions in South Australia, from installing residential and commercial solutions, working with farmers to develop small-scale solar farms that generate new income sources, and developing large-scale utility solar projects.
The five mid-large scale solar farm projects are being designed, installed and commissioned by YES Group. Once completed, these solar farms will deliver approximately 20 MW of electricity generation to the South Australian grid that will power around 5,000 homes.
The first two projects began construction in early 2021, with final commissioning occurring in September 2021. The YES Group designed both solar farms to include FIMER’s PVS-175 and Medium Voltage Compact Skid inverter solutions.
Mark Yates, Director of YES Group, spoke about the history and reason for choosing FIMER’s technology, saying, “Since YES Group launched the Redmud Green Energy project 5 years ago in South Australia, FIMER/ABB have been a key component of our projects.”
“FIMER’s products are modular, flexible and scalable. Their solutions provide a simple and effective solution for installation, deployment and the ongoing operation and maintenance of medium to large scale projects. This has enabled us to roll out our distributed network of solar farms – consisting of over one hundred 200kW to 5MW projects - throughout South Australia in a relatively short time frame and meeting a very high standard of quality.”
Bowmans Solar Farm Project
The Bowmans project was the first project completed and is located 100km north of Adelaide. The site encompasses 4,400 solar panels, single-axis tracking and eleven FIMER PVS-175 string inverters combined with FIMER’s PVS-175-MVCS solution.
This 1.9 MW solar farm was fully commissioned in September 2021 and will produce over 4,850 MWh per year or power over 750 homes.
Renmark Solar Farm Project
The Renmark project was the second project to be completed and is located 250km northeast of Adelaide. The site encompasses over 9,790 solar panels, single-axis tracking and twenty-four FIMER PVS-175 string inverters combined with FIMER’s PVS-175-MVCS solution.
This 4 MW solar farm was fully commissioned in September 2021 and will produce over 10,000 MWh per year or power over 1300 homes.
Inverter technology
Jason Venning, FIMER Country Manager – Australia and New Zealand, spoke about the FIMER solution for these projects, saying, “It has been fantastic to work with Mark and the YES Group team again on such high-quality solar farm projects. FIMER is proud to have delivered our high-quality, Italian made PVS-175 string inverter and MV compact skid technology on both sites.”
FIMER’s PVS-175 is a three-phase string inverter and comes with 12 independent MPPTs for increased design flexibility and increasing yields. The fuse-free design can deliver up to 185 kVA at 800Vac. This not only maximizes the ROI for ground-mounted utility-scale applications but also reduces Balance of System costs (i.e. AC side cabling) for small to large scale, free field ground-mounted PV installations.
The PVS-175 inverters installed on both sites are connected to FIMER’s Medium Voltage Compact Skid (MVCS), which includes both LV & MV switchgear, transformer and protection in a pre-fabricated skid that enables an easy and cost-effective connection of each solar farm to the South Australian grid.
Mark Yates concluded by saying, “Our relationship with FIMER has always been built on a mutual understanding of delivering high-quality projects on time and on budget. Our dealings with FIMER have always been professional, with a high level of communication and excellent delivery times.”
