Problem

During the construction of a PV site, Alinea Solar’s team noticed a large crack of about 15 meters during a drone flight. Consequently, this crack could move the structures, causing panels to fall and break.
Additionally, when checking the previous drone scans, they discovered that the crack had formed after heavy rainfall (5x more than usual). So the team knew rain caused the crack, but not why.

Sitemark’s Fuse Platform was able to shed light on why it happened. Specifically, a large crack appeared, which can result in soil slipping away.

Solution

The team could go back before the earthworks using Sitemark’s historical data and the swipe/compare feature. They discovered a vast hole that was previously filled with compacted soil. Furthermore, Sitemark’s Measurement Tool showed a height difference of 3 meters and revealed rock and rough vegetation. 

If earthworks are not properly executed, severe rainfall can cause the soil to become heavier, crack and slip, which happened here.

Results

Thanks to Sitemark’s historical twin, Alinea Solar could easily find the real cause of the problem, which enabled them to come up with corrective measures to fix the issue together with the EPC’s civil engineer. The crack is temporarily repaired by leveling the land and will be monitored closely.

In conclusion, spotting this issue quickly and having the tools to detect why it occurred helped save all parties involved a lot of time & money:

• The Asset Owner had proof that the earthworks were not adequately performed.
• The EPC had the necessary background information to fix the issue.
• The Asset Owner was able to avoid damage to the structures and tables and prevent potential blackouts, which could have led to up to 15,000€  for dismantling the row, redoing the earthworks, and reinstalling everything.