Seeking solar panel racking ideas/advice

Hello - I am hoping that the folks here could offer some suggestions, or direct me towards examples of solar panel racking that may suit my needs.

-24 panels
-dimensions: 6.5' x 3' per panel
-~50lbs each



-I am looking for a low-cost racking set up.  

-Some parts of the design could be steel, but utilizing lumber, possibly relying heavily on poles or rough milled lumber from my property and the local area would be best.

-seasonal tilt is desired, partially to help shed snow in the winter

-not necessary, but ability to manually track would be great

-portable/skiddable with tractor is a possibility

-do not have particularly high winds to deal with, however some summer storms can produce intense short lived winds

-not all panels have to be situated on same structure




I had wanted to get these panels onto a long shed/animal shelter, but that has yet to be built and may be a couple of years off still.


Possible ideas:
http://www.ottawavalleypv.ca/low_cost_ground_mounts.html

Hi J;  
That is a lot of panels you are trying to mount.
The website link you provided had excellent  wood frame suggestions.
One thing about ground mount, is snow.   Good and bad.  The good is it is easy to quickly clean off any snow. The bad of course is snow buildup on the ground that would need removal.
Another consideration is drifting snow building up.

A tractor movable structure has a wiring issue.

Another choice is pole mount.   Schedule 40 steel pipe is sized such that each 1/2" increment will slip inside each other.
With this arrangement A 3.5" section is concreted into the ground.  A 3" piece is used as your movable tracking section.
A short stub is used on top with your panel mount.
With as many panels as you have it would require at least 6 mounts to get them all up and running.
This method also allows seasonal tilting as well as manual tracking.
My panels are mounted this way.
Of course I only have a few compared to you.
I don't have any photos showing the mount but I can take some if you are interested.

Thomas - thank you for the reply.

You're right, it is a lot of panels that I am working with here! I am interested to see how much power I can actually produce once they are all aligned correctly. Currently I have them crudely mounted, and dealing with snow and ice buildup is an issue.

I appreciate the steel pipe suggestion and tips. I'll take a look at what I can find in this regard. Nesting pipes could be an elegant solution for me.

Or, possibly I'll pursue a ground mount set up similar to the link I shared, with built in seasonal tilt potential. If the lower end is high enough off of the ground, keeping that area clear of snow shouldn't be too difficult. I may also be interested in finding some sort of roll up/roll down snow/freezing rain cover. Some snow is nice and light and comes off without trouble, other snow, especially when preceded by freezing rain can be very difficult to clear.

I have been using an extruded aluminum rail to make custom racks and doors for ATV and UTV applications. The continuous mount capability lends itself to mounting tool racks, hinges and cross ties an entire length.  They come in a variety of sizes this is a 1.5x2. I have used rectangular 4x1.5 in some projects. These are what I used on my bus solar array. There are a variety of hinges and mounts available for putting them together. Amazon sells the extrusions but a google search might find a local source that has the 10 ft lengths I buy. I have used these in the shop for making jigs. It's a handy versatile piece of kit. The erector set option is great for those that can't weld aluminum it does weld beautifully if you can. Faztek is one name to look at on Amazon, but buying direct from an extruder has been cheaper for me.

There is a company called orange aluminum that has affordable extrusions...check out their website it might change your mind. I know they carry 4 sided t square that everyone is building 3d printers from. One thing to bear in mind is that the anodizing of the panel frame is non conductive. I saw and add for some washers with sharp points on them that overcome this issue removing the need for individual ground wires to each panel.

You listed an ottawa site. Sentinel solar sells aluminum extrusion for solar racking. https://sentinelsolar.com/
Their main warehouse is in barrie. Or, Call a local solar company and they can hook you up with the basic rails and clips. The structural parts are the pricey elements so building them yourself is a great way to save. The rails make attaching the panels much easier and are well worth it.
Cheers,  David

Thanks for the input so far.

I'm seeing prices of around $24/36-48" piece of extruded aluminum. This means I would be looking at 50+ pieces, or $1,200+ just for cross pieces... I'm not sure that is going to be a wise use of resources for me just at the moment.

Steel channel appears to be cheaper (but heavier of course), Unistrut/Superstrut. Just checking hardware store prices on such things, around $35/10' piece. Better value, and longer pieces means I can use them in different ways.



Interesting what this guy has rigged up with Unistrut and abandoned steel well casing tubing, looks like it needs some more support on his horizontal run of steel pipe, but possibly this is an economical and fairly elegant/simple set up:

This set up may be inadequate, and I wonder if the U-bolts will keep the panels in place, but I like that it's simple and efficient on materials:

https://youtu.be/ZLi6pEdwmqM?t=303



But, I have access to lots of trees, currently limited to a chainsaw mill, but there are lots of straight spruce and fir poles I can utilize. Yes, wood warps, breaks etc..

Here's some pics of my rotating frames made from unistruts.  They can turn left to right to track the sun over the course of the day.  They are not motorized, I rotate them by hand.  If I had placed the panels in the "landscape" orientation, I could have fit 6.

Depending on where you live and wind loads, unistrut is a good choice, or unirack. I currently use unirack, but I am adding 20 more panels to my array and will be using just pressure treated wood. Currently I have my unirack attached to the top of 4x4 pt buried in the ground 3', with the 90 degree angles brackets lag bolted to the top after cutting to approx 24 degrees. As I add, I am going to use pt 2x4's attached to the 4x4's and screw direct. As my panels really don't have to follow the sun (yet) as I won't be using to full capacity it will work fine. I am totally off grid and have had no problems with the 4x4 system thus far. You can always change it later as money comes available. Also, check with local roofers, as when they replace a roof they usually do not reinstall panels, they suggest to homeowner to purchase new. Some good deals out there.

Retail on the extrusion made for solar is roughly $4 canadian per foot just as a comparison...
Cheers,  David