New modular solar solution features cost-cutting ‘slide-together’ system

From pv magazine Australia

Green Energy Systems, a subsidiary of Sydney-based building systems company New Building Systems Pty Ltd., has unveiled its prefabricated modular Solar Waves solution, a PV array in which panels come preassembled on an all-aluminum framing system.

Green Energy Systems Chief Executive Officer Glenn Carless said the design of the Solar Waves system “is revolutionary in that we have increased the strength, achieved a number of new outcomes has dramatically lowered the cost, by simplifying the framework to be a sliding assembly … Our mission was to produce an entirely new system to deploy solar PV. We had two aims: devise a method to get rid of most of the labor out of the system because that is expensive; and to reduce the system down to its bare bones as far as traditional methods of construction and deployment. And that included removing nuts, bolts, screws, rivets, clamps … all of that stuff is gone.”

Carless said the Solar Waves system has been designed to eliminate as much manpower from both the project site and factory as possible with the company having also engineered machinery that allows for the full automation of the in-factory assembly process.

“That’s where we have been able to make some very big inroads in the way of costs,” he said. “We have invented and patented what we believe to be the strongest and cheapest solar deployment system in the world. The complication is all gone. It’s very, very simple.”

The solution is reminiscent of the Maverick technology offered by fellow Sydney company 5B, but Carless said there are significant differences. Solar Waves uses no concrete pre-cast footings and, without changing the assembly, it can be ground mounted, floated on bodies of still water or installed as a waterproof roofing system over car parks or agrisolar applications.

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