Enphase Energy and Yingli Solar have teamed up to put a 99.77kW solar system on the Richmond Football Club in Melbourne. The iconic Tigers Punt Road Oval will now be powered by solar.

The Yingli multi-crystalline solar panels and Enphase microinverters have been installed on the famous black and yellow ME Bank Centre. Housing gyms, clinics, education facilities and retail stores, the elite sporting facility has a very high daytime electricity usage which will now be provided by solar power.

Anthony O’Connell, CEO of Metro Solar, commented, “We’re proud to assist Richmond Football Club in becoming greener and of our role in giving them energy independence. On such a high-profile site, quality and reliability are paramount. Both Yingli and Enphase are world leaders, and their proven reliability is something we proudly stand behind as a solar installer.”

The site uses Enphase Energy mircoinverters with patented “Burst Mode” technology. This means that the microinverter installed behind each solar panel will collect little trickles of energy in times of low light (for example, as the sun is coming up or when the sun is going down for the day) until there is enough energy for it to send a burst of power. This ensures that the solar system will produce as much as possible and waste very little. It also helps to extend the solar systems hours of operation.

The Punt Road Oval solar system also uses Enphases’ cloud-based Enlighten software platform to monitor the system. The platform reports in real-time showing the performance of the system and is on display for the public in the clubhouse.

The club hopes its efforts will encourage the rest of its community to consider solar. It is also part of their strategy to make their 170 year old training facility more eco-friendly.