Floating Solar Panel Farm – Platipus® Civil Anchors

The Lismore Floating Solar Panel Farm located in northern New South Wales is currently (April 2018) the largest floating solar installation in Australia. The 100kW floating solar farm is installed on the East Lismore sewage treatment plant, and along with a 100kW solar installation at a local aquatic centre, forms a vital part of the local council’s plan to source 100 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energy by 2023. The project was implemented and completed over a period of 2 weeks.

Design

Ciel et Terre is a French company who designed and delivered the scheme in conjunction with a local Australian representing company, Suntrix Pty Ltd. The location of the sewage treatment plant in Lismore is an area prone to severe flooding. Ciel et Terre included in its design a total of 15no. Platipus B6 Anchor Systems to hold down the floating solar panel arrangement to combat unforeseen storm and flooding events. Design life for the anchor systems was 25 years.

Installation

Marine Civil Contracting installed a total of 9no. Platipus B6 Anchor Systems on dry land and 6no. Platipus B6 Anchor systems directly from a boat in the water. Each anchoring system was load locked and load verified for Working (Design) Loads of between 10kN (1ton) to 40kN (4tons). All 15no. Anchor systems were installed and testing over a period of 2 days.

The Platipus anchoring systems were chosen and deployed for the following main features & benefits:

• No Geotech or ground investigation available and anchor systems load verified immediately on site
• Speed and ease of installation with minimal specialist resources required
• Anchor points could be easily installed on dry land and directly from a boat in the water
• Relatively low ‘Total’ (Supply & Install) cost anchor solution in comparison to other systems and solutions