A sample academic conference poster, prepared to Australian postgraduate standard. View it below or download the full-resolution PDF.
What this poster covers
Background
Many remote Australian communities rely on diesel generation for electricity, which is costly, emissions-intensive and exposed to fuel supply risk. Falling costs of solar photovoltaics and lithium-ion batteries, supported by programmes from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, have made hybrid microgrids a credible alternative. A solar-plus-battery microgrid can displace a large share of diesel while maintaining reliability, but sizing must balance capital cost, fuel savings and the risk of unmet demand across seasonal load and solar variation.
Aim and Research Question
The project aimed to size and evaluate a solar-plus-battery microgrid for a modelled remote community of about 400 people in northern Australia currently supplied by diesel. The research question asked what combination of photovoltaic and battery capacity minimises the levelised cost of electricity while keeping the renewable fraction high and reliability within accepted limits.
Methods
An hourly techno-economic simulation was built for a full year using typical meteorological data and a synthesised community load profile with a peak demand of 320 kilowatts.
- Candidate systems combined photovoltaic arrays from 400 to 1,200 kilowatts with battery storage from 0.5 to 3 megawatt hours.
- A dispatch rule prioritised solar, then battery, then diesel, with the battery charged from surplus solar.
- Levelised cost of electricity, renewable fraction and unmet load were calculated for each configuration.
- Capital and fuel costs used current Australian benchmarks, with a 20-year project life and a 6% discount rate.
A sensitivity analysis varied the diesel price by plus or minus 30%.
Results
The preferred configuration paired an 800 kilowatt array with 1.5 megawatt hours of storage.
| Configuration | Renewable fraction | Levelised cost (A$/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel only (baseline) | 0% | 0.42 |
| 600 kW PV plus 1.0 MWh | 58% | 0.34 |
| 800 kW PV plus 1.5 MWh | 71% | 0.31 |
| 1,200 kW PV plus 3.0 MWh | 83% | 0.35 |
- The 800 kilowatt and 1.5 megawatt hour system cut modelled diesel use by about 70% and lowered levelised cost by roughly a quarter.
- Unmet load stayed below 0.5% of annual demand.
- Oversizing beyond this point raised cost through curtailed solar and underused storage.
Discussion
The results show a clear economic optimum, where added solar and storage stop paying for themselves because surplus generation is curtailed. A renewable fraction near 71% captured most of the fuel saving without the steep cost of chasing the last portion of diesel displacement. Diesel price sensitivity was significant: a 30% rise in fuel price widened the advantage of the hybrid system, underlining the value of fuel-cost hedging for remote networks. The model assumes stable equipment performance and does not capture maintenance logistics or battery degradation in detail, both of which would affect a real deployment.
Conclusion
A solar-plus-battery microgrid can displace most diesel generation for a remote Australian community at a lower levelised cost than diesel alone, with an economic optimum around a 71% renewable fraction in this model. Detailed engineering, community consultation and consideration of battery degradation and maintenance access are the logical next steps before implementation.
References
1. Australian Renewable Energy Agency. Remote microgrids in Australia: lessons learned. Canberra: ARENA; 2022.
2. Australian Energy Market Operator. Renewable integration and isolated systems report. Melbourne: AEMO; 2021.
3. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. GenCost 2022-23: cost estimates for new generation technologies. Canberra: CSIRO; 2023.
4. Lai CS, McCulloch MD. Levelised cost of electricity for solar photovoltaic and storage. Appl Energy. 2019;251:113-24.
5. Nguyen T, Brown P. Optimal sizing of hybrid diesel-solar microgrids for remote communities. Renew Energy. 2020;150:889-900.
6. Shaw R, Watson J. Battery storage dispatch strategies in isolated networks. IEEE Trans Sustain Energy. 2021;12(2):1123-32.
7. Clean Energy Regulator. Small-scale renewable energy scheme data report. Canberra: CER; 2022.