Solar Array Panel Grounding Question

[Birdog]

I have a question about grounding my panels. I think I read somewhere that my grounding wire couldn't be layed out too closely to itself. Reference the attached sketch. Can I start close to the pole, run the ground wire along top rail of 2 panels, up to the the bottom rail of the 4 top panels, back down to the top rail of the remaining 2 panels, then down to the ground to my copper grounding rod? My intent is to drive a grounding rod for each mount. The two mounting poles are 24' apart. The poles are sunk 10' deep and surrounded by concrete. The inverter is about 150' away and will get it's own grounding rod. I'm using IronRidge grounding clips on the panel frames.

 

[Quattrohead]

The racks ground each panel frame through the mounting bolts, you only need to connect 1 rack bar to ground on each set of panels.
If you have a continuous metal path into the pole in the ground, you could skip the wire and rod as you already have a good ground, but if it is being inspected then you will need to run the wire.
It's all in the instructions that come from Ironridge.

 

[Birdog]

I didn't get instructions. Just a bag of lugs. I thought to get grounding from encased poles I would have had to embed a grounding rod and/or rebar into the hole and into the ground during the pour? Which I didn't do. The contractor that drilled the holes set the pipe. Then he poured a couple of bags of dry sackcrete in each hole to level them and steady them. After that he tapped one pole into the ground about 3" deeper to level the tops. So theoretically there's a little bit of pipe at the bottom that isn't encased. After he left we mixed and poured ~8 bags of sakcrete into each of the holes up to and flush with grade.

I live off the grid in East Texas. No permit or inspection is required for my project.

 

[Quattrohead]

UFO® & Stopper Sleeves

The UFO® quickly and securely bonds solar modules to XR Rails®. Snapping on a Stopper Sleeve transforms the UFO® into an end clamp.

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