APA Solar Racking has changed the ground-mount ballast market by offering a concrete-free design. Featured at Intersolar this year, APA’s Geoballast Foundation was developed after years of installing ballasted solar projects. The utilization of wet concrete simply had so many hidden extra steps that would constantly increase man hours on every job. After a large amount of engineering and R&D, APA was able to take the idea of a standard Gabion Basket and transform that idea into the most cost effective ballasted solution in the solar industry.
The Geoballast was soft launched in late 2017 and is proving to be a very popular and cost-effective solution for ballasted projects of all sizes. With multiple projects underway, APA customers have improved their installation time and maintained their budgets.
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The galvanized steel Gabion baskets are hot dipped and epoxy coated for extra protection and ideal for landfills, pavement and brownfield sites. The ballast foundation is shipped 70 percent pre-assembled and filled onsite with standard quarry rock. Anchor tubes connect the ballast and racking with no earth penetration. Ballast staging can also greatly reduce installation time. They can be easily moved with a skid steer or carried to each location before filling with rock.
The Geoballast is compatible with 2 in portrait or 4 in landscape designs and can accommodate snow loads to 70 psf and wind speeds to 130 mph.
— Solar Builder magazine
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