Example Installation
522 kW of solar across 3 rooftops benefits from Tigo optimization, monitoring
Fully optimized solar installation offsets high electricity usage and elevated energy rates
Fully optimized solar installation offsets high electricity usage and elevated energy rates
A bathroom product manufacturer in Armidale, New South Wales, installed a 522 kW DC rooftop solar system to offset high electricity usage and elevated energy rates. Located approximately 500 km north of Sydney and 150 km inland, the customer was facing high electricity rates, making self-generation from solar especially attractive.
The customer had already experienced a 100 kW Tigo-monitored system at a sister company in Armidale. Although the team was initially skeptical of the forecasted daily generation, the sister site exceeded expectations. That performance, combined with SCE Energy Solutions' proactive monitoring, gave the customer confidence to move forward with a much larger installation.
What first appeared to be a straightforward project with ample roof space became a complex commercial installation. The site spans three large sheds and connects to three main boards, creating a design that had to account for building height, wind loads, panel pressure loads, structural limitations and available roof space.
The mounting strategy required multiple solutions. Some modules were installed flat, while others were tilted across several azimuths and roof sections. One building also required an oversized mounting approach because of over-spaced purlins. Late-winter snow bursts in Armidale delayed the start of rooftop work.
SCE Energy Solutions designed the system using JA Solar 500 W modules, four Fronius Tauro 100 kW inverters and one Fronius Tauro 50 kW inverter. The system includes two Tigo Cloud Connect Advanced (CCA) units and thirteen Tigo Access Points (TAPs) to support panel-level performance visibility through Tigo Energy Intelligence.
Because no modules on the site face directly north, the final design uses five different azimuth and tilt combinations. Instead of chasing a single peak, this configuration creates a longer, flatter generation curve through the day, helping the site offset daytime manufacturing loads over more hours.
With the system commissioned in September 2025, the customer can now validate performance across a complex, multi-building rooftop installation. The Tigo-enabled monitoring infrastructure gives the customer and SCE Energy Solutions the ability to confirm the investment is producing as expected and to identify issues that would be difficult to see from inverter-level data alone.
Why it mattered: The customer had already seen the value of Tigo monitoring at a sister site, where SCE's continuous monitoring helped detect a string issue. That prior experience made module-level visibility a key decision factor for the larger Armidale project.
In addition to enabling module-level monitoring, the Tigo TS4-A-O optimizers attached to each module have demonstrated approximately 4% Reclaimed Energy at the site. Reclaimed Energy is the incremental energy enabled by optimizers overcoming mismatch present from shade, mixed orientation, soiling, etc.
Armidale also offers strong solar potential, and the site's varied orientation can help extend useful generation across the workday. For a high-usage manufacturer facing high electricity rates, that combination helps improve return on investment while giving operations teams greater confidence in day-to-day system performance.
SCE Energy Solutions is an award-winning sustainability business who prides itself on providing only the highest quality product and latest technologies available for all our commercial, rural and residential customers in Australia since 2009.
For more information visit sce-energysolutions.com.au
