Transportable and multi configurable, modular power platforms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional solar power platforms require extensive pre-development, costly foundations, and significant site disruption, making them inefficient and environmentally harmful for distributed generation and off-grid installations.
Innovation Solution
The use of transportable, modular solar power platforms with toggle anchors and cable foundations allows for rapid deployment and minimal site disruption, eliminating the need for heavy equipment and complex engineering, and enabling real-time load testing to ensure secure anchoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional foundations and support structures are used for solar arrays, then structural stability is achieved, but installation cost and time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The solar power platform is divided into modular components including frame sections, support legs, and anchor assemblies that can be independently manufactured and assembled. This segmentation enables rapid on-site assembly without requiring extensive concrete pouring or heavy foundation work, thereby reducing installation time while maintaining structural stability through standardized connection interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform components are pre-assembled and pre-configured in a controlled manufacturing environment before delivery to the installation site. The frame sections, support legs, and electrical connections are prepared in advance, allowing for quick deployment and minimizing on-site construction time while ensuring quality control and structural integrity.
2Reliability
If conventional foundations and support structures are used for solar arrays, then structural stability is achieved, but installation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into standardized modular components with uniform connection interfaces. The frame, support legs, and anchor systems are designed as discrete units that can be assembled using simple mechanical connections rather than complex welding or concrete work, thereby reducing installation complexity while maintaining structural stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform design enables installation with minimal specialized equipment and expertise. The modular components are designed to be assembled using basic hand tools, and the system includes self-aligning features that reduce the need for complex measurement and adjustment procedures, allowing local workers to install the system without extensive training.
3Strength
If conventional foundations are used for solar arrays, then anchoring strength is achieved, but environmental disruption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The anchoring system is segmented into separate components: surface-mounted base plates and subsurface anchors. This allows the anchors to be installed minimally invasively (through small holes rather than large excavations) while maintaining strong anchoring capability. The modular design enables precise placement with minimal disturbance to the surrounding terrain and vegetation.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform uses temporary or semi-permanent anchor systems that can be installed with minimal environmental impact and removed or adjusted if needed. The design prioritizes ease of installation and removal over permanent structural modification, allowing the system to be deployed on sensitive terrains without causing lasting environmental disruption.
4Productivity
If transportable modular platforms are used, then installation speed increases, but power density decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The modular platform components are designed to be universally applicable across different installation configurations and scales. The same basic frame sections, support legs, and electrical components can be used whether deploying a single small platform or multiple platforms in an array, enabling rapid scaling without requiring specialized components that would increase installation complexity or reduce power density.
Solution Approach 2:
The platform integrates multiple functions into unified components: the frame structure provides both mechanical support and mounting surfaces for solar modules, the support legs provide both structural elevation and anchoring points, and the electrical connections integrate both power collection and monitoring functions. This merging of functions reduces the number of separate components needed, increasing power density while maintaining installation speed.
Data Source
AI summary
Support platforms for one or more solar panels and systems and methods for securing support platforms are provided. In one embodiment, a frame of a support platform includes a plurality of support legs, each leg including a shoe plate. One or more toggle anchors with rod and/or cable are provided that include an anchor portion and a toggle portion pivotally coupled to the anchor portion, and a rod and/or cable is coupled to the toggle portion. Each anchor is driven into the ground with a driving rod such that an exposed end of the rod and/or cable extends from the ground. The driving rod is removed, and the rod and/or cable is pulled to deploy the anchor, and which the anchor is pull tested and measured in real time soil conditions whereupon the exposed end is coupled to the shoe plate of one of the support legs to apply a desired tensile force between the exposed end and the anchor to secure the support leg and, consequently, the support platform relative to the ground.