Mounting the Solar Panels

The panels need to be carried one by one from their storage
location in the cabin to the work site. Each weighs 19kg.

The first panel is up.

Judy up on scaffolding to help sliding the panels up to their location.

The highest panels are 3-4m high off the ground, and
behind the array there is a steep drop-off.

Judy provides valuable help in getting the panels up to their location.

WOW - done.

15 Panels with an electrical capacity of 4kW, weighing nearly 300kg.
We both are proud that we managed to do it all without
outside help, except for the concrete work.

Building the Aluminum Structure for the Solar Aray

The whole structure was pre-cut and pre-drilled in Karl Hamson's
machine shop. The design was done on 3D software SketchUp.
The plan was that everything would fit together like a Meccano
Set, and it did.

As a small boy I had received a Meccano Set one
Christmas and had fun building a crane, and an excavator, etc. etc.
Now I had just as much fun 65 years later to assemble this structure.

An extract from the 3D design.

The Solar array consists of two parts, a 2-string array and a 3-string
array. They are sightly offset due to the extremely uneven ground.
The 2-string array is mostly done.

Working on the 3-string array.

The two arrays mostly done.

Close-up of intersection of diagonal and horizontal bracing.

Ditto

Close-up of the connection to the foundations columns.

Ditto

Ditto

The finished structure. Ready for mounting solar panels.

Pouring Concrete for the Solar Array Foundation

Paul is mixing the concrete.

Jordan is operating the vibrator

A sono-tube form (cardboard) for one of the columns, with re-bar and with the
3/4" galvanized bolt suspended in exactly the right place, as determined
by the 3D design. The solar array will be mounted on these bolts.

Shane is loading concrete from the wheel barrow into buckets for
carrying to the location up a steep trail - hard work for
Shane and Jordan. Shane's dog Buckwheat watching.

The elaborate jig 's purpose is to position all of the bolts in
exactly the right locations, such that the already pre-cut aluminum
structure will fit the foundation.

The forms have been removed, leaving the concrete foundations pads
and columns.Everything is sitting on hard bedrock, and the re-bar
extend into the bedrock.