Fast facts
5B customer: Energy Power Systems Australia
End user: Joule Energy / LMS / AlburyCity
Deployment: 5B
Grid connected behind-the-meter landfill biogas plant
The opportunity
Situated at Albury Waste Management Centre, adjacent to Albury city and connected through a main gas line running underneath, this hydrocarbon processing plant was ideally suited to a solar farm to supply both the plant and the regional town.
The challenge
Closed landfills are generally not suitable sites for buildings or structures as landfill gas emitted and captured through wells presents a safety risk and the capping of a landfill is not a stable platform to build on.
Most conventional solar structures are driven into the ground to depths well beyond most landfill membranes. As a result, solar projects have seldom been considered as a way to redevelop these unique sites. Until now.
The customer - a partnership between AlburyCity, LMS Energy and Joule Energy, with LMS owning and operating the system - required a solution that could appropriately circumnavigate these civil risks and challenges. At the same time, the gas line running beneath the site needed to be accessed contingently.
“This is a delicate site so we were thrilled to discover that there was an appropriate solar solution available at a low cost. With no real alternative available for sites like these, 5B Maverick opens up a world of opportunity for EPSA.”
- Ron Hall, hybrid microgrid segment manager, Energy Power Systems Australia
The solution
5B Maverick is a ballasted system which offers a cost competitive solution with rapid, energy dense deployment. This flexibility allows it to meet a landfill's unique requirements - the solution's anchoring can be adjusted to accommodate the limits of any size cap. At Albury, anchor depths were reduced to allow the landfill's membrane to remain intact.
Benefits of the 5B Maverick in Albury Waste Management project
Minimal ground penetration
The 5B Maverick is a ballasted system which requires minimal ground penetration. This makes it a safe and stable solution to use on marginal sites such as landfills which are covered with an impervious membrane and present civil works risk and limitations.
Relocatable
The relocatable nature of 5B Maverick means the gas line beneath the site can be accessed when necessary.
Rapid plug-and-play
Prefabricated, pre-wired, packed and delivered in shipping containers, the 5B Maverick requires minimal additional component delivery and negligible waste removal, making site management and logistics easier and more cost effective.
