An update on my experience with PowerField Energy system...
Yes, I used their system.
As mentioned the site has little topsoil and sedimentary rock underlying that. Very expensive to get traditional rack foundations installed.
Additionally the site has a downward slope of between 9 to 12 degrees.
The site layout is approximately 60' by 32'. In retrospect it could have been smaller -- 60' by 26'.
I covered the site with ground cloth fabric to prevent weeds. My suggestion is to use a spray on killer before the landscape fabric.
The site was then covered with approximately 3" of pea gravel. This allowed the Powerfield racks (think of them as tubs) to be laid on the ground and leveled easily. This leveling is fairly important otherwise the installation will look amiss because of miss alignment and uneven positioning of the panels.
Each 'tub' has holes in the bottom for drainage. I used 1.5' rebar stakes to insure that they would not shift in a downpouring rain.
I filled the 'tubs' with pea gravel -- initially too much. If overfilled, the 'tub' will bulge. Fill to the 10" mark which will have about 350 to 400 pounds of ballast. They panels are certainly not going to blow away.
Placement of the panels on the 'tubs' (aka racks) is easy and locking them down with their system is really easy.
String your ground wire and intra-panel wiring on the top of the tubs before panel placement -- much easier that way.
Wiring in the mini-inverters was easy -- mounting location on the tubs was available and easily accessed.
Putting the 'tubs' on a flat floor should be very easy. Be sure that your floor is really a floor since the weight of the load will be about 14,000 pounds for the array of my size.
Yes, I used their system.
As mentioned the site has little topsoil and sedimentary rock underlying that. Very expensive to get traditional rack foundations installed.
Additionally the site has a downward slope of between 9 to 12 degrees.
The site layout is approximately 60' by 32'. In retrospect it could have been smaller -- 60' by 26'.
I covered the site with ground cloth fabric to prevent weeds. My suggestion is to use a spray on killer before the landscape fabric.
The site was then covered with approximately 3" of pea gravel. This allowed the Powerfield racks (think of them as tubs) to be laid on the ground and leveled easily. This leveling is fairly important otherwise the installation will look amiss because of miss alignment and uneven positioning of the panels.
Each 'tub' has holes in the bottom for drainage. I used 1.5' rebar stakes to insure that they would not shift in a downpouring rain.
I filled the 'tubs' with pea gravel -- initially too much. If overfilled, the 'tub' will bulge. Fill to the 10" mark which will have about 350 to 400 pounds of ballast. They panels are certainly not going to blow away.
Placement of the panels on the 'tubs' (aka racks) is easy and locking them down with their system is really easy.
String your ground wire and intra-panel wiring on the top of the tubs before panel placement -- much easier that way.
Wiring in the mini-inverters was easy -- mounting location on the tubs was available and easily accessed.
Putting the 'tubs' on a flat floor should be very easy. Be sure that your floor is really a floor since the weight of the load will be about 14,000 pounds for the array of my size.
