Nelson Solar Garden (mis) Engineering

  Jan 28, 2019  UPDate, my FOI request to the city for the engineering notes regarding the Nelson solar garden is overdue.  Law requires a response within 30 business days.  I phoned today, the person in charge told me they were just about to deal with it.  How coincidental. Also I was told there is NO information.  

 The engineers drawings and what is installed bear no resemblance to each other, also the engineered drawings mention notes to be kept and inspections, I was asking for this, the engineers drawings state these are to be retained by the owner(city).     Just more stonewalling, blocking, denial from this city.  Transparency in this city, ethics?  Non existant in my experience with the city.

Below is a Professional Installation for A Homeowner the system

is about a km as the crow flies from the Commercial Nelson Community Solar Garden

The system mounts into sono tube pillars of concrete descending below the frost line and galvanized steel racking
It shows no movement after 3 years
This would be more likely to be seen in a commercial installation
It is installed at the optimal 39 degree slope
Designed to last up to 25 years

Above we see the wooden Nelson Solar Garden mounting system

This is more likely to be seen in a home DIY installation

Installed at unoptimal 30 degrees!

You can already see the water staining  and splitting in the wood from water which creates rot

Unlikely to survive to 25 years

Wooden racking is only used in rare circumstances (likely when the homeowner wants to build it themselves to save costs) because it likely wont last the operational lifespan of the panels!  (excerpt from the link shown)

The original plan was metal racking, it didn't make their budget whatever that was so they went out looking for something cheaper,  nobody will know, - immediatly just down the road, but the entire project is about that, politics, not of any benefit to the community.

              Below images from the structural engineers document
                                     

               Who authorized all the changes?  What's installed isn't what the engineer shows.

The above taken from the engineers drawing for the Community Solar Garden

NOTE 4.   I  suspect the engineer of record wasn't the engineer who did the drawings, who was it?
Who was the experienced field reviewer as required above?
.
4.c. It says all field reports and applicable communication must be retained by the owner.
That would be the city, it would be interesting to see these notes. That would tell
who authorized all the changes.


I thought about asking for the notes  its an ordeal for me to get any information from the city.  Transparent , open, government available to the public, not in my experience.  I get stonewalled, blocked, denied, discredited and ignored.
I only get information by submitting FOI requests

UPDATE  I put in an FOI requesting all the engineers notes, now that I see Rita Zume is being blocked
from posting on the Nelson Star newspaper stories, this could only come from city hall.

From the engineers drawing   2. c. above, it calls for a 1200 lb. vibratory roller
Only a plate tamper was ever seen, was this adequate? signed off?

Is it possible the specified vibratory roller would have reduced ballast movements?
There is a time lapse video showing the entire construction a vibratory roller is never seen

The uneven stresses put on these solar panels cannot survive long term, this is glass it will shatter and explode

Frost heaving after one year

Frost heaving of ballast creates these potato chip solar panels
Could this have anything to do with the compaction not being adequate?
This puts huge stress on what are essentially glass panels, unacceptable.





The view looking up a joint between panels, notice its almost touching at the top.

The spacing due to ballast movement can result in panel pressures likely to cause panels cracking under the pressure, the concrete ballast blocks weight over one ton each, would this be happening for the private system installed nearby?


Every joint has some variation on movement from the original installation proper spacing is seen at the bottom

The solar garden panels are all installed at 30 degree slope
The private professionally installed system was installed at the optimal 39 degrees

The civil engineers drawings show panels installed at 35 degrees?  Optimal is 39 degrees according to the solar engineer
They ended up being installed at 30 degrees, why?

The engineer shows panel row spacing at 6 m  what's installed about half

Front row shades the back row of panels, if they were installed at the optimal 39 degrees that shadow would be considerably higher, but if the row spacing was kept at the civil engineers  6 m, the optimal angle could have been used.


SUMMARY

The project was never thought out, as each problem occurred. Things had to change.
They had insufficient space, that necessitated the row spacing being closer, down from 6M to 3M
that resulted in the panel angle down to less than optimal 30 degrees so the front row wouldn't shade the back rows.
The solar engineers report shows metal racking pictures although he has no engineering involving that.
I believe the wood was an attempt at keeping cost down.
Temporary gain for long term pain and a very unprofessional looking project, embarssing.

The civil engineer who did the drawings is unlikely the one who signed off on all the changes.

The panel angle changed from 35 degrees to 30 degrees
The panel spacing from  6M down to 3M (resulting in shading)
Was the plate tamper sufficient?  It called for a 1200lb vibratory roller.




One of my emails to CAO Cornmack asked the question

"Why don't you hire people with expertise in the discipline of the project?"
I was referring to the city hiring Carmen Proctor as their contractor in charge of  the project.
I know she has never had any experience or background with solar installations.

CAO Cormack replied,  ":she is a familiar face"
I think there is too much of that in this city.

The Balfour solar systems recently installed by an Alberta firm went in for an average of $3.30/watt

The Nelson solar garden  well over $6/watt.
If I could get behind that curtain I am sure it would be more like $7/watt
The recently denied Fortis solar project estimated installation at $4/watt.

Even the Kimberley SunMine claiming economies of scale and with the extra cost
of Azimuth and Elevation tracking motor drives was only around $5/watt.
That was a few years ago when solar panel prices were much higher.

Nelson deserves better.

The solar garden doesn't work when we need it and it increases the cities carbon footprint.
Go Ask the manager of Nelson hydro how this aligns with the City Path to 2040 all about carbon reduction.
This city, the only city in western Canada with its own hydroelectric generation makes a huge income for the city, why would
the city promote anything that removes this income?