All of Gading Kencana's passion and excellence have come together now, on a grand scale, at the Kompleks Hijau Solar, a 17.17 acre solar farm in the state of Malacca in Malaysia. Every ounce of the company's inventiveness and persistence through adversity was required to bring to fruition the world's most resource efficient solar farm and it is, unsurprisingly, its most outstanding achievement to date.
Turning out 1 megawatt per 1.5 acres - versus an average worldwide best of 1 megawatt per 5 acres - the Kompleks Hijau Solar is, inch-for-inch, the world's most resource-efficient solar farm. Adhering to the most stringent safety and power quality requirements, the complex, with its 29,092 units of solar panels fulfilling a system capacity of 8 MegaWatts, is projected to output 11,000 MegaWatt hours of clean energy annually.
What makes this achievement all the more compelling is the manner in which Gading Kencana turned the imperfections of the site into opportunities to gain higher yields. The secret lay in getting the best of many different disciplines and ensuring every little part worked towards creating a consistently high yield. A hill on the east would channel wind and, as it went under the A-frame, provide ventilation for higher yields. The higher land profile - 62 m above sea level - with its lower ambient temperature reduced detrimental thermal effects. Instead of solar panel orientation based upon one standard model, Gading Kencana used its solar irradiance calculations in combination with detailed analysis of the site’s shadow profiles to create 8 different orientations that gave its panels the maximum opportunity to receive peak solar radiation. Staff individually tested the voltage of each panel before it was installed, rejecting some 2,000 pieces, to prevent the adverse impact of Potential Induced Degradation (PID). Even town planning would play a part - the 50m buffer zone around the Kompleks means no tall future developments will be able to affect yield.
The know-how to manipulate many disciplines is one that Gading Kencana stands ready to bring to the world. While the sciences in a solar farm are not, in and of themselves, complex, it is in application that a significant difference can be made. And although the technology for solar farms may be considered relatively standard in nature, there is no standard solution to achieve high yields and success. It is in its ability to challenge technological norms and accepted practices that Gading Kencana finds its platform to excel.
