Wind Protection for Ground Mount PV Panels

[svetz]

All the connections are simple wood screws. ... What you want to do is get rid of anything where the force would try to pull the screw/lag out, that is the force runs parallel to the screw. Ideally, the force is perpendicular to the fastener so you're relying on the thickness of the fastener for strength (e.g., the shear strength). When you can't do that directly, typically you use some sort of "hanger" that essentially straps it in against the forces, and lets the hanger's fasteners be perpendicular to the forces. Most common are joist hangers, but you can find all sorts of types or make your own. There are a few common hanger types in the image to the right.

...Would some 90 deg. steel brackets help a bit, d'you think?

Steel brackets might work, but only use fasteners that might pull-out if perpendicular to the forces (not always easy to tell with wind that can come at you from any direction). Otherwise bolts with fender washers (extra wide washers to increase surface area).

 

[Snowynorth]

Here's what I ended up doing for now. The intention is that after I add more slats a strong north gust's lifting force will be mitigated.
From comments made here I conclude I should add concrete in the footings, and cross-brace. I can also replace the wood screws in the z-brackets with lag bolts/washers, and put the same where lumber joins lumber. Could add angle iron at some joints also.

It's stood now for a couple of months. The most strong winds come from the west and northwest, which impacts the edge of the panels or the building. But my little setup shown, even if it is effective for north wind, doesn't do much about northeast wind. And what someone said is right, that wind can come from any old crazy direction. Once I had a popup shade thing setup on a calm day and without warning a very strong dust devil materialized and made a beeline for it, ripping it out from its stakes.

Old thread. I did see a few ground mount pictures about a year ago, that were similar to the one in this post. I looked but couldn't find them to post. I think they were in an off grid living or cabin forum. The guy heavily posted (pipe would work well too) and framed the back at a good angle out, the sides, and below the panels. He had a door to get in. It looked like the framing was 12" on center, and everything was braced in every way you could think of. Then sheeted it with heavy gauge barn siding, metal roofing. The panels all sat within the frame. Nothing hanging out. This guy wasn't fooling around. He showed pics of his less robust ground mount after real heavy wind. Not pretty. I'm sure the wind could only go around this one.. I get high wind to. I'm going to build robust, and start with separation between panels, for less wind resistance. If that shows any problems I'll figure something out.

 

[CableGuy]

can you backfill behind the array with, dirt? seems to be plenty around, somebody must have a skid steer or tractor.