We are proud of the role we played in delivering a state-of-the-art portable cooled water supply plant for the town of Thargomindah in southwestern Queensland.
Our parent company, NRG Services, was contracted to complete the project after offering an innovative solution to ensure Thargomindah had a reliable supply of town water. The solution maximised the use of renewable energy and using the current water supply from the Great Artesian Basin.
NRG-ONE’s services helped deliver the project, which required a wide-ranging scope of work including ground mount solar, grid protection, battery storage and islanding functionality, cooling towers and plate heat exchangers.
The main challenge that needed to be overcome was that during the warmer months, the bore water would come out of the ground at around 72°C and, although existing cooling ponds were being used to reduce the temperature, it remained around 55°C.
We collaborated with leading industry experts to deliver a turnkey solution using the latest technologies to rectify legacy water issues that have plagued the local community for decades.
To achieve the desired outcome of having water supplied to the township at a targeted temperature of 35°C, a system was designed and installed that saw the 72°C hot artesian bore water pumped through a series of highly efficient plate heat exchangers, with the use of cooling towers to achieve the target temperature. The cooled water is then stored in three 500,000-litre storage tanks ready for town use when needed, at a target temperature of 35°C or lower.
To meet the scope requirement of an energy efficient system, a 240kW ground mount solar array system, consisting of 558 solar panels, was installed. This system is connected to a containerised battery storage solution, comprising Samsung lithium-ion battery cells, which provides 583 stored kilowatt hours of energy for powering the site overnight or during periods of low sunshine.
All equipment is designed to operate in the extreme 49° Thargomindah summer temperatures. The entire system is also connected to the local energy network for exporting facilities and emergency back-up purposes but can operate indefinitely in “island” mode, disconnected from the grid, essentially becoming a self-sufficient green power plant of its own kind.
This whole system, now operational, is fully automated and has a water management monitoring component, connected to the Bulloo Shire Council’s network, which captures, records and displays live data.
We are continuing to work with the council to support, maintain, monitor and improve Thargomindah’s systems and water as part of this significant sustainability project.