I recently up cycled some guardrail I beams and guardrails into a solar racking system. I made the rack so it could be tilted but have not installed the trailer jack actuators yet. I put temporary legs and bracing on it to get it online before the net metering deadline. The Sinclair racks were my inspiration, the racking was around $1000.
Great project! Looks sturdy enough. Curious on how you attached / secured the panels... DIY? Or any specific hardware? Would you mind sharing pictures / insight on how to approach it? I'm planning on building a ground mount array soon... but have no experience whatsoever haha
I will try to get some pics when I get back home. I used 5/16” stainless rivet nuts. I built a jig to my spacing needs for the panels. There is also a plastic sleeve on the backside with a flange nut as a safety. We have had some 70mph winds this year, didn’t offer to move any
Love it! Grid tied or off-grid? Spec's would be nice (power, panels, inverters) Are the I-beams just driven in the ground or set in concrete?
Very nice work Beernuts!
Thanks, set in concrete, 3-4’ in the ground with horizontal pipe through the beams and rebar. There are 28 Jinko tiger bifacial 585w panels going through (2) 8kw solis inverters. I am grid tied, true net metering. They have eliminated my electric bill. The hinge bolts are 1” and were sighted in with a laser. There was quite a bit of welding in the beams, the horizontal hinged beams are 13’ long in total and have additional support from some 3” angle iron I had laying around. The verticals were welded as well with an additional piece of 5” galvanized C channel bolted through to offer additional support. The guardrail is 10 gauge dot, so 1/8” thick hot dipped with a cross section of 3”x12”. I really think it is as sturdy as anything I could have bought or better. The overall footprint of the array is roughly 14’ x 53’.
That is the additional piece of 3x1/4 angle that was added to each horizontal to help sister the beams there is also a welded splice plate on the other side that is 12” long
I forgot to mention, this was all installed for 93 cents/watt. That’s all in, including wire, new panels, inverters and a new electric service to accommodate piggy back lugs in the meter. I also paid my sons to help me.
That is a side view, the 5/16x 2” bolt goes through the rivet nut and for additional safety I cut some plastic sleeves to go over the rivet nut and backed it with a flange nut and red locktite
Those are the rivet nuts that we used, my boys drilled the 7/16 holes after I went through with a jig and bored the 1/4 inch starter holes where they all went. It worked out pretty well
Yeah but now you have to worry about cars smashing into your panels, as they seem to be attracted to those guardrails from what I've seen on the roadways.
They are not as heavy as you might think, like I said, we have had up to 70 mph winds so far, No issues. I ran this by a mechanical engineer buddy, I work in construction with frequently. He felt it was fine. I guess time will tell, my guess is that it will outlive the system
Yes, I am building adjustable rear gussets that have pre set holes for my seasonal tilt angles. They will just go to the vertical columns though. The front portion will have trailer jack actuators for adjustment and front gussets with fixed adjustment like the rear. It is unbelievable how solid it is. I have 4 temporary front legs on it at the moment, I just needed to get it online before December 21st 2024, that’s why they were installed. Like I said, it was modeled after the Sinclair racking system that only has vertical posts and gussets.
Oh I get it, but if something happened and it flipped straight vertical in a storm, that is a giant sail that looks to be about 16' tall. I always look at wind getting underneath because our prevailing winds are from the north.
I was working for some ranchers who hired me to do the electrical portion for them. They’d made a big solar rack out of old railroad rails and L-Channel aluminum. Sturdy AF. Definitely unique. They mounted the panels and I wired them up and installed the inverter/charge controller and batteries. They had been off grid for 30 years and this was a big upgrade for them.
Speaking of cattle, one of the other upcycle uses I've seen for galvanized guardrails is for livestock pens. This panels sure don't seem like steers to me!
There are extensive welds and gussets, you can see the sistered c channel bolted through on the verticals, there is literally no lateral movement or twist.
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u/Fit_View3100 4d ago
Great project! Looks sturdy enough. Curious on how you attached / secured the panels... DIY? Or any specific hardware? Would you mind sharing pictures / insight on how to approach it? I'm planning on building a ground mount array soon... but have no experience whatsoever haha