Case Studies

Whitsunday & Hamilton Solar Farms

Overview

Safearth performed an earthing system design for the Whitsunday & Hamilton solar farms. The compliant design was successfully delivered under a very pressing project time frame and in the most cost-effective way possible.

The Challenge

Many solar farm projects that Safearth are engaged to perform the earthing design for have tight time frames. As such, Safearth can be faced with pressing enquiries that require immediate attention. In this instance, Safearth was requested to provide early indication of the required earthing installation and methodology, in order to allow the project to procure long lead-time items and equipment even though the solar farm design had not been finalised.

How was the problem solved?

The client was under time constraints, and therefore needed a resolution that would ensure that the scheduled design delivery date was not compromised.

Due to the high level of staffing capacity, Safearth were able to respond quickly to this urgent enquiry and get on the ground as soon as possible. Straight away, Safearth had travelled to the solar farms site and undertook soil resistivity testing, whilst the projects were already underway. The results obtained from the soil resistivity test were immediately analysed in conjunction with the preliminary solar farm design. Subsequently, Safearth was able to perform calculations to determine the required conductor size and quantity for the project prior to the delivery of the final design report, whilst keeping the earthing installation requirement to a minimum.

This allowed the project to procure the long lead-time items, ensuring that earthing requirements would not put the project to a halt.  As a result, the client was able to have a reasonably high level of confidence that the design would meet the applicable design standards.

The Benefits of Working With Safearth

Safearth was able to deliver a practical and cost-effective design without implementing poor design methods such as gold-plating. The earthing system design was focused on delivering an optimum design with minimum earthing requirements to achieve safety compliance, equipment reliability and installation integrity.

Due to Safearth’s expertise and experience in the field, the project was able to progress from early design stage through to final design stage with minimal interruptions and unnecessary delays from the procurement and design point of view.

Furthermore, Safearth was able to quickly respond to the design changes that occurred during the design stage, and provided effective and practical earthing solution, and support throughout the construction process. If you’d like expertise advice on earthing design at a solar farm, contact us today!