Nigeria - 120 Kwp solar mini-grids

Project Overview

This 120kWp ground-mounted solar mini-grid project was successfully installed in Nigeria, West Africa, providing clean, reliable electricity for rural community electrification. Located on a site characterized by natural undulating terrain and sloping topography, the project utilized a highly adaptable ground mounting system equipped with height-adjustable telescopic posts. This design enabled rapid vertical leveling across multi-directional slopes without requiring costly and time-consuming land grading or earthwork.

The Challenge

• Complex Topography & Unlevelled Site: The project site in Nigeria featured natural undulating terrain with multi-directional slopes and severe ground elevation variations. Standard fixed-column mounting systems were incapable of maintaining a uniform PV array plane across the irregular surface without structural misalignment.
• Excessive Civil Earthmoving & Grading Overhead: Conventional land leveling and earth excavation would have incurred massive civil engineering costs and severely extended the construction timeline. In addition, deploying heavy site-grading machinery to a remote West African mini-grid location was cost-prohibitive.
• Array Alignment & System Performance Requirements: To guarantee optimal solar yields for the 120kWp mini-grid, all PV module rows needed to maintain a consistent tilt angle and seamless visual profile despite the uneven ground beneath.

Our Solution

1. Engineered Telescopic Height-Adjustable Posts: Integrated vertical post-adjustment mechanisms (up to ±150mm adjustment range) were incorporated directly into the support column design. This allowed installation teams to level array support beams and rails over natural slope variations and uneven ground contours in real time, completely bypassing costly site excavation and earthmoving overhead. 

2. Elevated Concrete Pedestal Foundation System: The ground mount array was anchored using cast-in-place elevated concrete piers. Elevating base steel connections safely above ground soil moisture and seasonal rainwater pooling mitigates long-term base corrosion risks during West Africa's tropical rainy season while providing solid foundation stability. 

3. Tropical-Grade Hot-Dip Galvanized Anti-Corrosion Protection: All primary structural steel members were treated with heavy-duty Hot-Dip Galvanizing (HDG) in compliance with ISO 1461 (mean coating thickness ≥65µm). This treatment provides maximum environmental resistance against high humidity, intense UV radiation, and heavy rain cycles over a 25-year operational design life. 

4. Factory Pre-Assembled Modular Architecture: To simplify remote off-grid logistics in Nigeria, components were delivered as pre-assembled modular kits with standardized bolted connection hardware. This eliminated field cutting and on-site welding, minimized local labor dependency, and significantly shortened overall construction and commissioning timelines.  

The Result & Impact