Knowledge Of Ground Mounted Solar Systems
When you want to have your own photovoltaic power plant,you need to know about the ground mounting solar systems.
As the name implies, your solar system will be located on the ground. The main advantage of a ground-mounted system is that there is a wide range of options to choose from, depending on your location, your needs, and your proposed design.
The various ground-mounted solar racking options that you can choose from are:
Foundation Mounts
Foundation mounts are the most common ground-mounted structures.
Their installation consists of first preparing the land for excavation. Excavation is needed to put vertical pipes or mechanical tubing surrounded by a concrete foundation in place.
This installation requires the site assessment and geotechnical analysis of the soil to determine whether it is strong enough to hold the mounting structure. Depending on the type of soil (crystalline bedrock, sedimentary rock, gravel, sand, etc.), the foundation pressure will differ. So the soil type determines whether concrete foundation, helical pile, or ground screws are needed to anchor the solar system in place.
Ballasted Footing Mounts
If the soil is not suitable for drilling or excavation, the best solution is to use a ballast mount system. Ballast mounting consists of a pre-cast concrete block anchored to the ground. This structure is widely used in residential solar panel installations.
These represent a simple and cost-effective solution when installing a small solar system. Solar panel pole mounts are ideal for residential purposes. The advantage of pole mounting is that there is no need to create a complicated foundation or level the land (a necessary step for ballasted mounts). Instead, just a simple steel pole with a concrete anchor is placed on the ground. This simple structure provides sufficient support for the solar panels. In some cases, due to the unsuitable soil type or extreme weather conditions, special adjustments are required.
Among the available pole-mounted schemes, you will often find Side Pole Mounts. These mounts are widely used for lightning purposes and very small solar panel installations. Other options are Top Pole Mounts, which are generally designed with heavy steel mounting sleeves, elevation pivots and strong backs that allow them to endure hard weather conditions and support big solar panel arrays. These structures allow the tilt angle to change very easily and come with a good variability range of 15° to 60°.
Multi-pole Mounts
These structures are based on the same principle as the pole-mounted systems. The only difference is that all solar panels are laid in a single horizontal line (instead of being separated). This means that the solar system can be horizontally extended as much as is desired with additional vertical pipe supports.
The advantage that multi-pole mounts have over other solar ground mounting systems is that these structures allow the installation of bigger systems with great and simpler tilt variability, needing only one adjustment for all the panels, unlike pole-mounted which require an adjustment for each set of panels, and do not require as many soil perforations as other traditional systems. These systems are also ideal for carports or for shading purposes
