Commercial Solar

What Goes Into an MW-Scale Solar Project

Guide · Commercial solar & battery · ~5 min read

Megawatt-scale solar is a different animal to a small rooftop system. It's part engineering project, part grid negotiation, and getting the sequence right is what keeps it on budget and on time.

Start With a Site Review and Feasibility

Before anyone talks panels, a large project starts with understanding your site. That means your load profile, your tariff structure, how you use power across the day, and what your roof or ground area can physically support.

This stage is where the shape of the project gets decided. A facility that runs heavy machinery through the day has very different needs to one that draws hard in the early evening, and that changes whether battery storage and energy arbitrage make sense alongside the array.

• Interval data and tariff analysis to understand real consumption
• Roof structural capacity or available ground area
• Shading, orientation and usable space assessment
• Whether storage and AI arbitrage add value for your usage pattern

Grid Connection and Approvals

This is the part that catches most people out. At MW scale you're not just plugging in, you're negotiating a connection with your network provider, and that process can take time and shape the whole design.

The network needs to know how much you'll generate, how much you might export, and what protection is in place so your system behaves properly on their infrastructure. Export limits, protection settings and connection agreements all get sorted here, and it's smarter to lead with this than to design around it later.

• Connection application to your DNSP
• Export limit and protection requirements
• Metering and compliance obligations
• Approvals that can influence panel and inverter sizing

Structural and Electrical Engineering

Large arrays put real load on a roof, from the weight of the mounting system to wind uplift. A structural assessment confirms the building can carry it, and the mounting design is engineered to suit your specific roof type and local wind ratings.

On the electrical side, cable runs, switchboard capacity, inverter placement and protection all get designed to standard. At scale, small decisions about where the inverters sit and how cabling is routed have a genuine impact on performance and cost.

• Structural engineering sign-off for roof or ground mounts
• Mounting system rated for local wind loads
• Switchboard and cabling capacity review
• Inverter selection and placement

Batteries and AI Energy Arbitrage

Not every MW-scale project includes storage, but where it fits, it changes the economics. A battery lets you store cheap or self-generated power and use it when grid prices climb, rather than exporting for little return during the middle of the day.

This is where ATI's AI-driven energy arbitrage comes in: the system charges when power is cheap and discharges or exports when it's dear, working your tariff automatically. How much that's worth depends entirely on your tariff and network, which is exactly what a site review pins down.

Installation With an In-House Team

A project at this scale involves a lot of moving parts, and coordination is everything. ATI runs an in-house, CEC and SAA accredited team rather than subcontractors, so the people who design the job are the people accountable for delivering it.

That continuity matters when you're scaling from a straightforward rooftop up to something like the 415kW array at DB Santasalo in Bulli. Larger projects are staged so your operations keep running, with the disruptive work planned around your site rather than the other way around.

• Accredited in-house installers, no subcontractors
• Staged works to minimise operational disruption
• Experience across commercial sites including Garmin, Goldschmidt and a Hunter Valley vineyard

Commissioning, Monitoring and Handover

Once installed, the system is tested and commissioned to confirm it performs as designed and meets compliance requirements. This is where protection settings are verified and the array is brought online properly.

From there, monitoring lets you see generation, consumption and, where storage is in play, how the arbitrage is performing over time. A clear handover means your team understands the system and knows what to expect.

If you're weighing up an MW-scale project, the honest first step is a site review. Real figures on generation, savings and payback come from looking at your roof, your load and your tariff, not from a generic quote. We're happy to take a look when you're ready.

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