Newdegate Machinery Field Days: Transportable solar panel system awarded for innovation

A WA solar power company has been taken by surprise by the “completely unexpected” award for its innovative transportable solar panel system at the Newdegate Machinery Field Days.

The transportable solar panel system from Statewide Solar Power was awarded the new innovation award at the field days, and can be built to have up to 90kVA-worth of power delivery and 140kW per hour.

Statewide Solar Power national business development manager Daniel Bassett-Scarfe said the accolade was completely unexpected for the transportable system.

He said he saw a huge potential for the solar system in Australian agriculture operations and beyond.

“Essentially it’s a mobile off-grid — I can see great potential for this for things like exploration drilling, mobile maintenance, roads and things like that,” Mr Bassett-Scarfe said.

The transportable system is DC-coupled and can be expanded for more solar panels and solar inverters.

Mr Bassett-Scarfe said he could see the system benefiting farmers who use drones in their operations, saying “(the drones) are going to need a hell of a lot of power”.

Statewide Solar Power managing director Jason Fisher said the idea for the solar system came from an idea to mobilise permanent solar systems and to overcome challenges of powering regional areas.

“The inspiration came from the electrification of the world — and West Australia being such a big place, and even the challenge of getting diesel to the generator site wherever you may be, is an issue,” he said.

“Instead of getting your genset running 24/7, it’s only running two or three hours a day if it needs to get as much solar as we can off it.”

He said they had received a swell of interest at the field days for the solar system which is priced from $90,000 and has a maximum price of about $250,000.

“Essentially it’s set to replace gensets all over WA . . . anywhere remote, really,” Mr Fisher said.

“The economics really work if it’s replacing a genset that’s running 24/7 — it’s a no-brainer, it pays for itself in three to five years.”