Out of the Blue is a four-bedroomed water-front holiday home in Maui Bay, Fiji.

The 600m² pavilion-styled house accommodates up to 12 guests in en-suite facilities and boasts an infinity pool, well-equipped kitchen and dining room, air-conditioning, courtyard gardens, stunning sea views and water sports just a few steps away.

Until recently the house was entirely powered by a diesel generator – but that wasn’t the best solution for either the guests, or the owner. Generators are noisy, expensive to run, require regular fuel deliveries, and inevitably, of course, they will occasionally breakdown – which is embarrassing and inconvenient.

That’s no longer a problem: Out of the Blue have just installed a high-spec solar energy system to provide the holiday accommodation with silent reliable three-phase power – night and day. For the guests there are no fumes, noise or power cuts. For the owner the energy is ‘free’, there are very few fuel deliveries needed now the generator is only used for emergency back up, there is much reduced expense, maintenance or breakdowns. And for the planet the energy used is sustainable and carbon-free.  Everyone wins!

The solar power system was designed and installed by Solar Fiji. Installed devices were specified following an energy audit of the accommodation’s daily energy consumption – which includes air-conditioning, all expected kitchen facilities, laundry room, drink chiller, refrigeration, filtration water pumps, and lighting.

To provide peak energy demands and to guarantee ‘cloudy day’ energy storage Solar Fiji specified:

• Solar Panels: 17.10kWp capacity from 36 Jinko 475W Mono Solar Panels.
• Battery Storage: 20.2kWh storage with 10 Zenaji 48V 2.02kWh batteries.
• Power Inverters: 3 Victron Quattro 48/5000/70 inverters configured to provide three-phase power. The Quattro provides stand-alone power or it/they can be connected to a back up generator whose current it can control. When recharging depleted batteries, the Quattro will provide energy to all live appliances, first, and maximise the generator output (to a preset level) using all surplus energy for battery recharging.
  

  L-R Atalemo Waqa(Solar Fiji Head Technician), Dean Robertson (Director of Out of The Blue), Lice Ratulevu (Solar Fiji Technician)

• Solar Charge Controller: A Victron SmartSolar MPPT 250/100 harvests solar energy with better than 99% efficiency.
• System Monitoring: The system employs a Color Control GX data communication centre device. The Color Control GX – as with all Victron GX communication devices – harmonises the installation by providing data communications between all Victron and other-manufacture devices. With an internet connection it provides system data to anywhere in the world via the Victron Remote Management (VRM) platform – allowing engineers to monitor and programme the system without visiting site. Where a GX device is designed to be ‘hidden’ away in the installation a discreet GX Touch 50 touch screen User Interface device allows system monitoring and programming on site. It can provide ‘read only’ operation to guests and deeper access to owners and engineers, for example.
• Connectivity:  GX WiFi module wifi range extender.
• Distribution: 5 Victron Lynx Power In units offer a fuse monitored DC busbar for efficient power management and distribution.
• Fronius Inverter: During the ‘daylight day’ a Fronius 10kW three-phase PV Inverter converts solar energy directly into usable power. Fronius PV inverters and Victron inverter/chargers can be deeply integrated – particularly when their frequency shift settings have been correctly configured.

[You can learn how to optimise a Fronius/Victron integration, and watch a Victron/Fronius hosted webinar on this page.]

Solar Fiji say that one of the main challenges of this installation was optimizing solar panel placement to maximise the solar harvest whilst preserving the resort’s aesthetics. “Additionally, ensuring that the transition from diesel power to solar was seamless, without disrupting operations, was critical. We’re particularly proud of having achieved a system which integrates efficiently with their backup generator power – a CAT 24kVA – and having significantly reduced fuel consumption.”

Let’s dream of a vacation Out of the Blue: