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
Equipment required for the decommissioning activities
Blackhoe
Bobcat
Bulldozer
Crane
Disc Plows
Excavator
Frontend Loaders
Jackhammer
Loader Truck
Racking
Tractors
