De-commissioning

Decommissioning of Solar PV projects

A well engineered & maintained solar PV project can have a lifespan upto 30 years. Timely repairs and re-powering provides an opportunity to extend the project lifetime to 50 years.

Although this seems far away today, when the time comes to tear it down, the process isn’t simple…

Commercial-scale solar arrays take up an entire rooftop. Ground-mounted large utility-scale projects take up acres of land. Decommissioning these projects can take weeks or months and need extensive planning to haul materials oﬀsite.

Government authorities will soon ensure project owners plan and decommission their solar projects at the end of its lifecycle in an environment-friendly way.

Decommissioning a solar project is inevitable, and system owners and operators should be aware of what options they have when the time to tear it down comes.

Be it a small roof-top project or mega size utility scale project. Reparar Works oﬀers end-to-end services from removal to recycling of
eligible components and clear the site.

The Decommissioning Plan

A Decommissioning Plan provides details & overview of the decommissioning and restoration activities.

The main components of the Project include:

Solar panels and tracking system

Foundations and steel piles

Electrical cabling and conduits

Perimeter fencing, site access and internal roads

Transformers and inverters

Out of these components some maybe salvaged for reuse or sale while the others need to be recycled or disposed in an environment friendly way.

The anticipated sequence of decommissioning and removal is described below; however, overlap of activities is expected.

Reinforce access roads, if needed, and prepare site for component removal
Install temporary fencing and best management practices (BMPs) to protect sensitive resources
De-energize solar arrays
Remove panels and dismantle racking for recovery / disposal
Remove structural foundations a minimum of four feet (48 inches) below the surface
Remove inverters and transformers
Remove electrical cables and conduits less than two feet (24 inches) below the surface
Remove access and internal roads (if requested by landowner) and grade site
De-compact subsoils (if required), restore and revegetate (if desired by landowner at the time of decommissioning) disturbed land to
pre-construction conditions to the extent practicable

De-commissioning