A Practical Hybrid /Off-Grid training course being delivered over four days in the hills outside of Melbourne is attracting students from near and far. Jacob Harris heads over to check it out.

At the end of a winding dirt road that ascends the densely-forested Mt Toolebewong north-east of Melbourne, is the Moora Moora Community Co-op. The 245 hectare, cooperatively-owned property – comprised of approximately 30 homes – has existed off-grid for over 40 years and is the venue for SolarQuip’s four-day solar hybrid and off-grid training course.

The course teaches students how to size, configure, program and design both on-grid hybrid systems and off-grid stand-alone power systems. I’ve come up for the day to check out Moora Moora, get a feel for how the course is delivered and to meet some of the staff and students.

Glen Morris, VP of the Australian Solar Council and founder of SolarQuip (a solar installation, consulting and education company) runs the course. I find Glen making his way across a field that separates the classroom where the theory elements of the course are taught and the student’s lodge.

Glen, himself a long-time resident of Moora Moora, is happy to show me around and tell me about the course which, he stresses, is available to anyone who’s interested and as such has no prerequisites. That being said, Glenn does suggest that a basic understanding of solar systems and simple mathematical equations will come in handy.

“I deliberately ran the course without any specific prerequisites. It’s not an accreditation unit or a unit of competency from an RTO, it’s just professional development. I have run lots of courses for electricians in the past but this time I want to deliver training for people who need extra knowledge in the area but who might not necessarily be involved in the installation,” says Glen.

This sentiment is reflected in the varied backgrounds of the students who attend the course. Among the students this time around there’s an electrician who wants to learn more about hybrid systems and batteries, a mechanical engineer looking to improve his practical knowledge and an IT professional thinking about moving into the renewables sector. Of course, they’re all here for different reasons and all have different levels of skills and knowledge.

We walk around to one of the practical training areas where there is a host of semi-permanently installed systems for the students to practice on. These include:

• SMA Australia (Sunny Island 8.0H, SB3000TL-21, SB5000TL-21, Webbox, Sunny Sensor, and

Meteorstation)

• Schneider Electric XW+ 8.5kW inverter/charger, 600V80A MPPT, RL 3kW solar inverter, ComBox

and System Control Panel

• Selectronic SP Pro
• Outback Radian (7KW), Flexmax 80 and Mate3
• Studer Innotec XTM4000, VarioTrack, RCC, and other monitoring equipment
• AERL CoolMax charge controllers
• Plasmatronic Dingo charge controllers
• Fronius Galvo string inverter
• Canadian Solar PV modules and Camel Energy Storage System (full hybrid unit)
• SolaX hybrid inverter with Pylontec Lithium storage system
• ET/SolarBridge micro inverters (both on-grid and off-grid configurations) plus Power Manager
• AirBreeze d.c. wind turbine
• StreamEngine 2kW micro hydro turbine

“We’ve got several training areas that are essentially work zones for the students. Everything’s a bit messy because they’re constantly building it and tearing it down – it’s never finished. I’ve got loads of systems that are given to me by various companies, so I just get the students to play with them and learn about them. This is what I’ve designed this course to be: it’s for people who want to learn about the theory and the practical.

“We’ve got extra low voltage systems for those who are not licensed and we’ve got low voltage systems for those who are licensed. We have also just received the Redback Smart Hybrid System which is a rather exciting new inverter. They consider it the Powerwall beta because it’s actually an inverter and not just a battery, this is the first one in the world and we’re testing it for them,” says Glen.

It’s a collaborative atmosphere as all the students work together enthusiastically and learn from each other. In this way any disadvantages brought about by disparities in prior knowledge are mitigated. Indeed, all the students appear to be taking a great deal from the experience as they work in small groups to test the IV curve on new and old solar cells and configure an independent power system (IPS).

In addition to the variety of hybrid systems students can train on, Moora Moora homes feature diverse off-grid solutions covering the spectrum of single appliance powered equipment (pumping), single home SPS systems, multiple dwellings supplied from a single SPS system and a micro grid system with multiple homes and buildings supplied by multiple SPS systems linked via a LV network.

It is a unique, relaxed learning environment that promises to provide students with all the skills needed to design both on-grid and off-grid hybrid systems to customer requirements.

“Because the market has changed so much with batteries, the training that’s available through the standard units of competency is not applicable any more. I’ve been on the EL committee who writes them and we haven’t updated them for 15 years. They only look at battery systems for remote off-grid applications, not for people who are on-grid storing their solar energy trying to reduce the cost of their electricity,” says Glen.