Performance Assessment of Steel Posts Supporting Solar Energy Infrastructure Facilities: Novel Approach for Underground Corrosion
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34, Issue 3
Abstract
Solar energy is expected to provide between 15% and 30% of US electricity by 2050. Photovoltaic solar plant infrastructure includes the photovoltaic modules, structure, and balance of components. Decisions regarding the future integrity of a solar plant depend in part on an accurate assessment of the site environment and conditions affecting its corrosion and hence its rate of degradation. This paper presents a framework that improves the performance evaluation of corrosion rates and estimated service lives of steel posts supporting tracker and fixed-tilt solar energy infrastructure systems. The authors developed new statistical models and integrated them with current existing models to identify individualized optimal corrosion-assessment approaches for constructed posts, and assess their performance, depending on each plant’s unique site environment. Applying the new and existing underground corrosion models to data from 62 solar infrastructure sites demonstrated the superiority of the newly developed approach in predicting steel structures’ underground corrosion rates in highly corrosive environments. The findings of this paper will inform and support decision makers in infrastructure facility design, maintenance, and reliability applications.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code used during the study were provided by a third party (geotechnical reports and corrosion rates). Direct requests for these materials may be made to the provider indicated in the Acknowledgments.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support and funding provided by First Solar in the preparation of this work. Special thanks are given to Azmat Siddiqi for his leadership and guidance. The authors also thank all the industry supporters who provided endless hours of their time for the data collection and model validation as part of this study.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 34 • Issue 3 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 19, 2019
Accepted: Nov 15, 2019
Published online: Mar 4, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 4, 2020
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