TerraSmart provided ground mounting for this 21-MW installation at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Massachusetts.
By the team at TerraSmart
When it comes to selecting the right partner and product for your next solar ground mount project, there are six key things to always look for. These items will quickly narrow down the choices and lead you to the partner with the best selection of services and products for your next job.
Adjustability: Selecting a partner with highly adjustable racking will save money and time upfront by reducing, and in many instances cutting out, pre-construction civil work associated with earth moving or site grading. Look for a cross-slope tolerance of at least 30% grade, and racks that allow for ease of installation with pre-drilled, adjustable slots and brackets throughout all steps of the rack assembly. Also, look for partners that offer more simplified hardware stacks. This allows for easier materials handling that takes less time to stage on the work site, and will result in a higher velocity completion schedule.
Overall Project Cost: Everyone wants to find ways to lower the cost. An easy way to do that is to look for a partner that uses recycled materials, such as roll-formed steel. Steel is both efficient and readily available, and the recycled quality does not impact the integrity or lifecycle quality of the product. Rather, this is a way to pull out cost upfront at the bid phase, and will help you to come in under a competitor on overall project pricing. That said, this must also factor into overall project cost, such as efficiency, reduction of pre-civil work and more. For example, if one partner is able to get your project online a month sooner due to efficiencies, that one month of additional energy that the customer gets out of the system will have a significant impact on profitability.
Delivery: How quick can materials make it to the site? If you are building in the U.S., ideally look for a partner whose products are manufactured there. The last thing you want is for materials to be stuck on a slow boat from the other side of the globe. By choosing a partner with U.S. manufacturing, you’ll have more control over the speed of delivery, and should additional materials be needed, they can be moved to your site more rapidly. Typical time from manufacturing to worksite is 4-6 weeks, especially when choosing a rack sized for and made of readily-available, roll-formed steel.
Installation Speed: How long will it take to get from ground to glass? Velocity can be increased by using adjustable racks made of roll-formed steel, eliminating pre-construction civil work, and with simplified hardware stacks for easier materials handling. But what about unforeseen conditions? This is really where the rubber meets the road with the partner you select. By choosing a partner that is vertical, meaning that they offer a truly turnkey solar ground mount build experience, you’ll be ready for whatever a project site throws at you. Look for a partner with everything from surveying to a construction arm for rock drilling and civil work, installation teams with product expertise and ideally one that manufactures their own parts so they have total control of the project timeline and can ensure continued velocity and hit your desired deadline.
Bankability: Financiers who are considering investing in your solar project not only want to know if you have the ability to fulfill your end of the bargain. They want to know if your vendors can deliver on theirs. When it comes to solar ground mounts, look for a current and regularly up-to-dated UL 2703 safety and performance listing, which will let you know the product is certified and safe. Look for a racking product that has a 20-year warranty, to ensure the racks will maintain their integrity for the lifecycle of the solar project. Supply-chain management is becoming an increasingly vital component of closing solar projects — so make sure you’re doing business with people who are as bankable as you are by looking for the right certifications, safety standards and warranties.
Experience: There is one easy way to judge experience and expertise, has the partner you are looking at successfully installed at least 1 GW of product to date? More items to evaluate…Have they done a significant amount of work at the commercial and utility-scale level? Is their company steadily growing and expanding projects into new territories? Do they have an extensive history working successfully with unforeseen conditions in many different types of tough soils? Do they own their equipment and are their crews on staff rather than sub-contracted? If the answer to these questions is yes and they have made it through the other five questions on this list with tangible results and references, you’ve got a solid project partner to add to your bid.