Tubular towers and PV mounting [RE-wrenches]

Ray Walters remotech at taosnm.com
Mon Nov 17 18:25:09 PST 2003


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>   2-3 KW worth of PV is a big sail - think about the strength of the top 
> of pole mounts - 2-3 KW of PV require an 8" Schedule 40 pole that can't 
> be more than about 16' tall without needing guys.
>Jeff C.
>Village Power Design

  Hi Jeff;

  I just ran the calculations for a 20 ft tall PV array that had to 
withstand 100 mph wind loading. The standard among frame manufacturers 
is   1.5 kw on an 8" SCHED 40 pole 6 ft out of the ground. I think 2 to 3 
Kw  16 ft out of the ground would fail in under 50 mph winds. If the air is 
hot, humidity is high, the installation is near sea level, and the array is 
still tilted at a winter angle, the wind speed exerts much more force than 
one might imagine.
As far as the pole mount at the heights discussed, not only will the torque 
on the base of the tower be incredible, but the tower itself will exert 
more wind loading than the wind mill. (multiply 8" x 160 ft for instance)

Ray

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