About Origin Energy Limited
Discuss about the Managing Strategic Resources And Operations of Origin Energy Limited Company.
In this report a study is going to be conducted origin energy limited company which is one of the largest solar energy producing firms. The day to day operation of the organisation is going to be studies. Several factors like resources, production and process of the organisation has been studied. The sustainability of the solar energy has also been evaluated in this project.
The origin energy company is one of the top 3 solar energy companies operating in Australia. It is the leading company that is operating in the energy sector. It has a chain of energy supplies like LPG but it is known for being one of the largest solar energy companies in Australia. It conducts functions like exploration of energy, production and retailing of the energy. They operate in large parts of Australia New Zealand and pacific regions. The organisation aims to become the leader regional leader in energy supply. The solar venture of this organisation is in sync with the plan of the organisation to develop renewable sources of energy. It can be considered as an international venture but as mentioned before it is localised in the pacific region as of now. The headquarters of the organisation is in Sydney. The company is enlisted in Australian stock exchange. It is a profitable organisation till now and has been generating a large number of revenue. The origin energy was formed in the year 2000 because of a de merger of Boral limited (Solangi et al., 2011). Some parts of its business go back many years in the 20th century. The net income of the company in the year 2016 was 589 million Australian dollars after tax.
For the maximum output from the solar power plant of origin it is important to maintain a proper 24 hour work schedule. The production of the rooftop solar panel of the origin energy company depends on several factors. First of all the production of energy by the solar power plant is dependent on several factors like the weather condition in a given day. In case of full sunlight the production is higher and in case of bad climatic condition the production of energy is lower. In a 24 hour operation cycle the depending on the direct normal irradiance availability of sunlight a 1 kW PV plant produces between 3 to 4.5 kWh of electric energy (Martin & Rice, 2013).
There are certain regulations and standards that are to be followed by the solar power plants on daily basis. The operation begins at sunrise all the components of the panels are attached for the proper storing of the energy. It is also of immense importance to quantify any kind of failure as early as possible in ongoing process to make appropriate recovery in time. Each 14 days a performance test is arranged for the panels. At the end of the day’s operation it is mandatory to cool the inverter station and ensuring proper cabling. The key time period in the 24 hour cycle is the time between 9 am to 3 pm this is when the maximum production in this industry takes place. There is no operation function at this point of time but to ensure that the batteries are being charged properly during this time (Martin & Rice, 2012). Any malfunction that stops charging the battery has to be eliminated at this time because it will be a waste in the total production if this time is missed. So the 24 hour cycle in this industry is related to the nature.
Day-to-Day Operations of Origin Energy
The market capitalisation of origin energy limited is 16.09 billion Australian dollars. This company is heavy on assets. The fixed assets of the organisation are 18.69 per cent of its total assets (Origin Energy, 2018). The organisation is several power plants across states of Australia like Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia. All of these places have large number of power houses some states like Victoria or Queensland has more than one power plants. Each of these power plants produces a large number of electric energy. Each of these places has fixed assets in terms of land, solar panels etc. It also owns several other assets for the purpose of procurement of energy. The organisation has also purchased wind farms in South Australia. Some of the major assets of the company is darling down power station in Queensland which generates 644 MW electricity per year, Roma power station Queensland which generates 80 MW electricity per year, it owns large assets in Morlake power station in Victoria which generates 566 megawatt electricity, Ladbroke grove power station South Australia generates 80 megawatt electricity, Quarantine power station south Australia generates 224 megawatt electricity and lastly the Uranquinty power station New South Wales which generates 664 megawatt electricity (Kalogirou, 2013). These involve some of the fixed assets of the organisation. The machineries contribute as non fixed assets of the organisation.
The solar energy products are panels that are developed for the purpose of capturing sunlight and transforming it into making electric energy. This happens through a conversion of light energy to electric energy. The major components that is required for the development of this product involves crystalline silicon, thin film, CIGS, amorphous silicon, triple junctions and solar cells which is the thing that stores the generated electrical energy. Tolerance analysis is to be done of the product before it is marketed.
The solar energy panel building follows a design process. In the very early stages the research and development is conducted for the product, alpha beta prototypes are designed after the design is conducted, customised equipment can be designed for the purpose of enhancing the product design. The idea generation in case of this sector often enough comes from the research and development work conducted in an organisation. The perceptual mapping of the organisation has to be done depending on the customer perception. It is one of the 3 best organisations in Australia and has to benchmark its products only with best products developed across the globe in this field.
There are several other functions that are to be done in the marketing of the product like power integration and its cost benefit analysis (Wu et al., 2007). Cost analysis and structure analysis has also been a key element in the product design of solar panels.
In the solar energy business the process can be explained by the input output model. The input in this scenario is the sunlight. The amount of sunlight that enters the panels contributes to the inputs in the production process. Direct normal irradiance is the measurement of the amount of direct sunlight that has been the input in the production of energy in the panels.
Factors Affecting Production of Rooftop Solar Panels
The transformation is the function that occurs within the panel. The process of this transformation happens when the silicon cells are being excited by the sun rays by using the photon that is present in it. The cells are designed in a manner that there are positive and negative films of silicon placed underneath a slight covering of glass material. The photon of the sun rays removes the electron of the silicon. The movement of the negatively charged electron gets attracted at one particular direction in the silicon cell resulting in the production of electricity. There are numerous strings of solar photovoltaic cables that end in a fused array combiner. The array combiner uses fuse to charge the inverter in return. Thus the transformation process ends the output is the electric energy. The batteries are charged with the electricity which can be later utilised.
The sustainability report of origin energy provides in detail information regarding the sustainability practices of the organisation. As mentioned before the organisation not only deals in the production of solar energy but much other energy. The other energy sectors of the organisations are also built for high level of sustainability as it has only power station in Eraring which uses coal for fuel. This is also going to be shut down by the organisation in 2030.
The solar energy plants of the organisation is sustainable in all means as the there is no requirement of any fuel in conducting the production of the electric energy in this case. It doesn’t uses fossil fuel in any means. The solar panels are placed mostly in rooftops from where the sun light is captured and transformed into forming electric energy (Kelly, 2007). There is no emission of greenhouse gases as well in the production of the solar energy.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that origin energy is one of the largest solar energy producing organisation. It uses solar panels for the production of energy. The solar energy is one of the most sustainable sources of energy which has no negative impact on the environment.
References
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Kalogirou, S. A. (2013). Solar energy engineering: processes and systems. Academic Press.
Kelly, G. (2007). Renewable energy strategies in England, Australia and New Zealand. Geoforum, 38(2), 326-338.
Martin, N. J., & Rice, J. L. (2012). Developing renewable energy supply in Queensland, Australia: A study of the barriers, targets, policies and actions. Renewable Energy, 44, 119-127.
Martin, N., & Rice, J. (2013). The solar photovoltaic feed-in tariff scheme in New South Wales, Australia. Energy Policy, 61, 697-706.
Origin Energy (2018) About Origin – Origin Energy. [Online] Available at: https://www.originenergy.com.au/about.html (accessed 18/ 04/ 18).
Solangi, K. H., Islam, M. R., Saidur, R., Rahim, N. A., & Fayaz, H. (2011). A review on global solar energy policy. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 15(4), 2149-2163.
Twidell, J., & Weir, T. (2015). Renewable energy resources. Routledge.
Wu, H., Fu, Q., Giles, R., & Bartle, J. (2007). Production of mallee biomass in Western Australia: energy balance analysis. Energy & Fuels, 22(1), 190-198