Rooftop versus ground mount solar power system maintenance

Rooftop Solar VS Ground Mount Solar

Manpower deployment:

As compared to a rooftop solar power system, a ground-mount solar system is easier to service. This is because a rooftop solar power plant may be scattered across different buildings within the same or different premises and would require greater manpower deployment. For instance, while a 1,000 kWp ground-mount solar power plant might only require 4 people for comprehensive maintenance, a rooftop solar power plant scattered across 10 different sites may require 10 people.

Accessibility:

Accessibility on a metal roof is harder than ground mount or RCC roofs. This is taken care of by ensuring proper equipment is available to access the roof.

Water source installation:

Installing water connection is more difficult on sheet metal roof as compared to RCC roofs or ground mount system because piping can only be done around the structure otherwise the structure would start leaking.

Safety:

Safety is a top priority and a key concern for metal roofs. At CleanMax, we ensure that Top Safety Measures are undertaken not just during plant installation, but also while cleaning the metal roofs to avoid disaster.

Presence of skylights and HVACs and other structures on roofs:

In the case of metal roofs, the presence of external structures, such as skylights, vents, etc., restrict the usage of the roof. Ensuring proper spacing between modules and installing walkways provides room for movement to the cleaning staff and allows better access to individual modules, thus ensuring better cleaning. This aspect is taken care of during preparation of the detailed engineering design by the projects team.

Avoiding business practices disruption:

Extra precaution is taken to prevent damage to roofs, to avoid any disruption of the business processes going on underneath the roofs. This particularly becomes important when the metal roof is the only shed to protect the manufacturing and/or engineering processes.

Analysing the plant performance and sharing DPRS (detailed performance reports):

Our O&M team follows the practice of religiously sending monthly performance reports to our clients. A consolidated report about site-read data, Detail Generation Report (DGR) which contains shutdown details are compiled every month and shared with the client. The shutdown details are crucial to avoid discrepancies in billing. Good maintenance of the system ensures longer life of the asset.