The rows of bifacial PV panels shall be mounted in an east-west monitoring system, with two totally different peak configurations. This will enable for business crop manufacturing alongside and underneath the panel constructions. The system will generate 2.3GWh of renewable vitality per yr.
Next to the primary vary, a second smaller vary shall be devoted to multi-use analysis as the primary perform, with full handbook management, totally different heights and settings. panel configuration, and totally different panel applied sciences.
Subject to useful resource consent, the challenge shall be constructed on a four-hectare parcel of land owned by the college adjoining to the campus on the nook of Springs and Ellesmere Junction Road.
Scheduled to be accomplished by mid-2025, the vitality farm will improve the University’s whole producing capability to roughly 3.56GWh, overlaying 18% of the campus’s annual electrical energy wants after upgrading the heating system to 100% electrical energy.
Lincoln University’s chief working officer, Susie Roulston, stated the Lincoln University Energy Farm is essential to the University’s objective of changing into carbon impartial by 2030 and carbon zero by 2050.
“Our multi-disciplinary strategy has enabled decarbonization and a brand new agriPV system. The Lincoln University campus is an instance of sustainable practices and a showcase for land use change,” stated Roulston.
The college says the challenge is “the primary demonstration of high-value agriPV in Aotearoa, New Zealand”, including that “whereas livestock grazing is usually achieved inside photo voltaic installations regionally and internationally, this methodology primarily for weed administration functions.progress and comparatively low value”.
The agriPV panorama in New Zealand
As the college talked about, though that is the primary challenge to discover “high-value” agriPV, it isn’t the primary photo voltaic farm developed to include agriPV. However, many initiatives have added it to their plans.
For instance, New Zealand photo voltaic developer Lodestone Energy revealed in late June 2024 that it’ll construct a 220MW agriPV challenge on the nation’s South Island.
The challenge covers 340 hectares, about 1.5% of the entire land space of Haldon Station, and Lodestone plans to start out building subsequent yr. While the corporate has not specified which modules shall be used for the challenge, it can add to a rising portfolio of photo voltaic initiatives in operation, with Lodestone at the moment working the 33MW Kaitaia challenge and the 32MW Rangitaiki challenge within the North Island. within the nation.