Sunraysia Solar Farm to be one of Australia's largest!
Civiltest’s latest project with Sunraysia Solar Farm is touted to be one of Australia’s largest utility-scale Solar PV power plants.
Sunraysia Solar Farm, which is being developed by Maoneng Australia near Balranald, in New South Wales, is expected to be completed by December 2019.
Maoneng Australia engaged Civiltest to conduct the preliminary feasibility of geotechnical investigations. Civiltest has continued to work with Decmil in providing comprehensive geotechnical investigations for the design of the project. Some of the many services Civiltest has provided for the Sunraysia Solar Farm are:
Thermal Resistivity Testing
When electricity is transmitted through cables, it produces heat, which needs to be dissipated. In the case of underground cables, the soil can be responsible for 50% of the resistance to this heat dissipation. Thermal resistivity or Rho, as it is called, can affect cable-life, and has to be considered during project designing and implementation.
Civiltest are NATA accredited to provide thermal conductivity/resistivity in accordance with ASTM D5334-14.
Earth resistivity testing
Earth resistivity measures the resistance of soil to conducting electricity and depends on various properties of the soil. Knowing earth resistivity is vital for designing a sound grounding system in an energy generation plant, to provide consistent power supply, ensure the safety of staff, and prevent damages to the equipment.
Civiltest conducted earth resistivity testing at spacings up to 100 metres for two phases of geotechnical investigations on the project.
Civiltest specialises in the provision of onsite annex laboratories for large scale construction projects. As such with a size and scope of this project, Civiltest has been facilitating the projects geotechnical requirements throughout the construction phase with dedicated onsite annex laboratories.