“Our systems are renowned for their ability to withstand extreme weather and have been proving it all across the Caribbean for years,” said CEO Florian Roos.
SEMI’s "Coastal Solar" Project is located just a few hundred meters off the coast of San Pedro de Macoris, which is about 80 km east of the capital Santo Domingo. When the project is finished, it will feature 255,540 modules mounted on 5,370 racks.
Schletter will be supplying the ground-mounted FS Duo System needed to make it happen. The extra-robust dual pile system is made of high tensile steel and was designed to withstand winds of up to 257 km/h. That means it can stand up to the hurricanes and tropical cyclones that besiege the region on a regular basis.
A short installation time and large spans make the system particularly economical as well. Due to the extreme humidity and high chloride content in the marine atmosphere, Schletter works with a particularly resistant zinc coating for all steel components with corrosion class C4.
The solar park was designed with concrete foundations instead of conventional pile foundations. Concrete foundations which employ what are known as “micropiles” are not only better suited for dissipating any tensile and shearing forces present into the ground (e.g. extreme winds), they also allow for more precise installation. Before the drillhole is filled with concrete, the posts are precisely positioned using GPS measurements and support bolting. This makes it possible for entire rows of PV units to be aligned with exact precision.
