Civ Robotics in solar farms
The CivDot and CivDot+ are engineered to automate and redefine surveying in the solar landscape. With these autonomous robots, installers have increased the layout output by 8x and reduced costs by more than 50%.
From precise pre-drilling, pilling, and staging piles to installing fences, MV lines, and energy storage facilities, the robots are optimizing numerous aspects of solar farm development.
What you lay out is what you build!
Piling
Piling involves driving I beams into the ground to provide stability and support for suspended solar panels.
Civ Robotics' GPS-equipped surveying robots help the crew swiftly identify where to pound the piles in the ground. It’s important that each pile is placed in the right spot with no room for error to ensure all solar arrays are aligned.
CivDot+ is a great tool for pile layout alongside standard pile drivers. Even with a GPS-enabled pile driver, marking the pile coordinates has many benefits:
- Avoid looking at the screen while driving
- Improve worker safety
- Increase piling productivity by 10%
- Double verify pile position and type
Staging Piles (Shakeout)
Staging in solar farms involves distributing piles close enough to the pile coordinate before piling. The process is applicable and useful for both GPS pile drivers and non-GPS pile drivers.
The piles come in varying lengths per the project specifications and are identified with different colors.
CivDot can mark locations for 3,000 piles per day within 4 inches accuracy, ensuring the right pile is placed closer enough for the pile driver to pound. The CivDot takes the piles' design data, creates an optimized route, and marks the pile locations with spray paint. The operator can then install either colored flags, nails with whiskers, or stakes.
Carrying out pile staging activity with CivDot increases the pile driving efficiency. CivDot has helped improve the survey time up to six times for our clients like Bechtel.
Pre-Drilling
Solar farms take up space. For example, a 220 MW (roughly 1,100 acres) takes up as much as 833 American football fields. With the solar market booming, many new projects are challenged by difficult site terrains made of rocky, dense, and full of caliche soils.
Pre-drilling becomes a necessary step. Pre-drilling is the process of drilling through rocks and hard soil to replace them with softer material that is easy to pound through for piling.
It’s important to have an accurate layout of drilling locations so that the crews can work more efficiently. CivDot+ has an accuracy of 3/100’ (8 mm) and can pin-point up to 1,200 points per day.
Ground Screws
An alternative for drilling and piling when the terrain is harder. Ground screws are used to cut through the most challenging soil conditions. It requires a precise layout like piling.
MV Lines
Medium-voltage (MV) lines are installed to connect the solar panels and distribute the electricity generated. Proper design, installation, and maintenance of MV lines are essential to maximize the performance and reliability of solar energy systems.
CivDot can survey and lay out the location for trenching for MV lines. It can help prepare a real-scale blueprint with dashes for MV lines.
Fencing
Fencing around solar farms serves multiple purposes, from security and safety to ecological conservation.
Civ Robotics’ robots help by efficiently locating points for fencing. The robots can accurately mark out the perimeter of the project, ensuring that the fence is properly placed without any gaps or overlaps.
Battery Storage
Battery storage in solar farms refers to the use of rechargeable batteries to store excess energy generated by solar panels. This stored energy can then be used during peak demand or when there is less sunlight, making the solar farm more efficient and reliable.
Battery storage is placed on a leveled concrete slab, which requires creating a new foundation or framework. Civ Robotics shows construction workers where to cast the concrete for battery storage.
© 2024 Civ Robotics inc. All Rights Reserved.