APA Solar Racking has introduced a concrete-free ballast design to the ground-mount solar market. The product was featured at Intersolar North America earlier this month.

APA’s Geoballast Foundation was developed after years of installing ballasted solar projects. The company found that the use of wet concrete had too many hidden steps that would increase man-hours on every job. After a large amount of engineering and R&D, APA took the idea of a standard gabion basket and turned it into a ballasted solution for the solar industry. Fence

APA Geoballast uses baskets of rocks rather than concrete for ground-mount solar foundations

Galvanized steel gabion baskets are hot dipped and epoxy coated for extra protection. They ared ideal for landfills, pavement and brownfield sites. The ballast foundation is shipped 70% pre-assembled and filled onsite with standard quarry rock. Anchor tubes connect the ballast and racking with no earth penetration. Ballast staging can also greatly reduce installation time. They can be easily moved with a skid steer or carried to each location before filling with rock.

The Geoballast is compatible with 2-in-portrait or 4-in-landscape designs and can accommodate snow loads to 70 psf and wind speeds to 130 mph.

Kelly Pickerel has over a decade of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World.

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