Working closely with our partners and the end client at Astra Zenica, PV Structures were tasked to design, engineer, fabricate and install a completely new profile design Solar Car Park area, to house 1092 tier 1 Trina 555W panels, to make up a system of 606kW, on top of an existing Multi Level Car Park (MLCP).
Making this Solar Car Park project even more difficult, as always on pre-exisitng multi level car park (MLCP) infrastructure, is in fact the existing infrastructure. Many people and clients believe that if the existing infrastructure was built to handle cars, then surely it was built to handle a shade structure, when in fact they are completely different types of loads and serving completely different functions. The key and critical part is what PVS affectionately call the preliminaries. It is absolutely crucial to get a thorough as possible understanding of the way the MLCP was both originally designed and built and what other elements are potentially in the way. This process includes comprehensive slab scans for services, GPR scans of the slab to establish thicknesses and inconsistencies, studying old engineering drawings to work out slab make up, reinforcement layouts, and beam locations and dimensions, post tension cable thicknesses and locations. By collating all of this information, PV Structures and our Engineers are able to firstly ascertain whether a slab can be connected to efficiently and effectively, then design and engineer both a structure and connection details that will work on the site
This site was no different, with the main scope being to maximise the Solar Output across the 3,000sqm of top deck on the car park. From first proposal to final commissioning, the entire gestation period for the project was around 4years, however in the end, all sides pulled together and developed a plan and a final design that worked specifically for this site and achieved the over all goal..
Using our premium frame profile, designed and engineered specifically for this project, PV Structures were able to design a sleek and efficient looking layout, that met all of our clients needs, which we were able to install on time, on budget and more importantly to our normal high standards and the gratitude of all involved.
