> Modules for solar farms have been getting larger and heavier, but the maximum size/weight has traditionally been limited by what human workers can heft into place.
Are there installers that actually use humans to lift solar panels onto racking on solar field projects? I figured everyone was using vacuum pump panel lifters instead of humans these days as it’s much faster and less prone to injury.
I'm trying to find recent Time Lapse videos - here is one from Australia, 2020 - at the time the largest in Western Australia - so at scale. All the panels were hand lifted by one person. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCtFG-hIHdM
- 200 MW
- 1200 Acres
- Piles -- 68,350
- Support Piles (Crew does 80-100 piles/day)
- Tracker System
- 490,150 Solar Modules
- 540 watts/module
- Crew can install 500 panels a day
- These are multi person 2-4 people lifting.
- 500 workers on site - doing 6200 panels/day.
- (That suggests ~40 person crews if all worker installing
panels. Wow - now I see why this is a big deal)
- Cables panels -> Inverters
- Big Inverter install to to convert to AC
- Lots of concrete pouring for substation/Inverter Pad.
Are there installers that actually use humans to lift solar panels onto racking on solar field projects? I figured everyone was using vacuum pump panel lifters instead of humans these days as it’s much faster and less prone to injury.
One example: https://unimove.com/lift/solar-panels/
These can easily be fabbed up by a single person, it’s just some steel and a couple vacuum pumps.