Kleinfelder were commissioned to undertake preliminary geotechnical investigations and assessments at four of a client’s proposed solar farms – located across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria – with the information used to inform the solar pile design and ancillary infrastructure at each location.

Understanding the Project Locations

Kleinfelder’s experienced geotechnical team were able to adopt the client’s proposed design methodology; however, they also identified cost benefit savings to the client due to the small scale of some of the PV plants, by eliminating $70,000 worth of pile load testing that would not produce cost savings to outweigh the incurred load testing costs.

Scope of Work

• Test pits
• In-situ tests
• Surface resistivity
• Pile testing
• Soil classification and property testing

Following the above tests, Kleinfelder provided assessments of the ground conditions, detailed design parameters, and construction advice to allow the efficient and cost-effective design of the solar piles.

Project Results

Kleinfelder’s geotechnical engineers provided the client with individual site geotechnical reports, including design parameters and construction recommendations.  With extensive experience in solar pile design, the team also provided practical advice for the PV Rack Foundation Structural Design, relating to areas where deeper piles could be expected and where thicker sections would be required to resist aggressive ground conditions.

Project Details

Location:
Various Locations

Owner:
Teys Australia