Solar Farm Survey Web Map

The productivity of a solar farm, with automated tracking solar panels, relies on the precise alignment of the solar panel piles and the mounting arm. Quality assurance and monitoring of variances triggered by reactive soils, groundwater, flooding and other conditions, are critical to maintaining the viability of the solar farm. Monitoring is carried out though periodic surveys of pile elevations and allows for early detection and remediation of issues. An operator of a large-scale solar farm in Australia had concerns about shifting as a result of periodic flooding and other soil conditions. RPS carried out two annual surveys to assess vertical movement of piles. The first survey provided a baseline and a comparison to as-designed elevations. The second survey was done one year later to detect any change in elevations since the first survey. During both surveys the results were sent from the RPS Australia survey team to the RPS Rhode Island GIS team where they were reviewed and uploaded to an ArcGIS Online web map for the survey team and client to view progress updates and results.

Key Details

Project Name

Solar Farm Survey Web Map

Client

Solar Farm Operator

Location

Australia

 

Sectors

Energy

Services Provided

  • Surveying
  • Data management, Analytics, and Insights
  • Spatial intelligence and GIS
  • Creative visualization and immersive design

Challenge

With an area of over 700 acres, containing 61,000 posts, managing the survey results and a robust QA/QC process with traditional means would be difficult and time consuming. Summarizing the survey progress and visualizing where work is complete or outstanding, would not be possible. Lastly, comprehending, visualizing, finding spatial trends, and making informed decisions based on this quantity of tabular survey results data would be very difficult.
Solar panel farm

Getty images

Solution

RPS designed a data management system and ArcGIS Online web map to process the survey results and view them in an interactive map shared within the project team and with the solar farm operator. Automated routines were setup to import the tabular survey results from the survey team, perform QA/QC, compare results to past elevations, and load the data to the web map database. The web map was designed to show the progress of the survey spatially (percent complete by work unit), show a comparison of pile elevations over time, and to identify areas where alignment didn’t meet the optimal criteria that the components were designed for.
solar_img_Jeremy Fontenault.png

Statistics

734
acre solar farm
61,000
piles surveyed
1
web map to display survey results from two rounds of survey

Contact Us

Fontenault_Jeremy_201811_wasitup_highres.jpg

Jeremy Fontenault

Director, Ocean Science T: +1 401 661 8666 Email
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South Kingstown | US
Neil Roberts, RPS, Survey Manager - Townsville

Neil Roberts

Practice Leader - Survey, Townsville T: +61 408 267 138 Email
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Townsville | Australia

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