Remote Solar Pumping System Installation

Customer: Kurrajong Pastoral Company

Location: Alpha, QLD

Case Study ID: CS-15

Date: April 2015

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Overview

Kurrajong Pastoral Company engaged the Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment Rockhampton branch to design, install and commission a sizeable solar-powered stock watering system on one of their rural properties located near Alpha, QLD.

Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment’s Rockhampton branch specialises in designing, manufacturing, and installing innovative, customised Solar Pumping systems for the commercial, agriculture and mining sectors of Central Queensland and the greater Capricorn Coast regions. Dowdens Rockhampton works closely with beef cattle producers to deliver innovative solar-powered stock watering systems that not only minimise human interaction with cattle but add value to the farms via efficient energy and water consumption.

The Problem

The solar-powered stock watering system is required to transfer onsite bore water to existing water storage tanks. These water tanks are used by Kurrajong Pastoral Co. primarily to water the 1,000 head of cattle onsite.

Kurrajong Pastoral Co. specified each head of cattle was to be allocated a minimum of 10 gals per day (approx. 45 L/day), meaning the pumping system needed to deliver over 10,000 gals per day (45,461 L).

Water is pumped from the 5 ” onsite bore (pump set at 35 m) with 75 m total head into three storage tanks via polyline pipe.

Our Solution

The Kurrajong Pastoral Co. solar pumping system was designed to keep overall operating costs down whilst still delivering a regular supply of water to cattle with negligible ongoing service or labour required. Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment Rockhampton designed the system to be more cost effective than running additional wiring and connecting any onsite pumps to mains power.

The new solar pump replaces a B Head Mono Column and Shaft pump – originally powered by an onsite diesel engine. Dowdens solar powered system has thereby significantly lowered the environmental footprint of the entire pumping system.

Key Components

18 x 250W solar modules mounted on 3 x 6 modified fixed arrays – this solar array can deliver 4,500W [max]
The solar power generated is fed to a Grundfos inverter
Grundfos Submersible pump delivering 46,000L/day @ 75m total head