Solar farms in Alabama face the damaging effects of erosion when they experience heavy rains and wind. Erosion can damage a solar farm facility and its equipment, making for costly repairs and replacements. Controlling erosion on solar farms is an important measure to ensure the functionality and appearance of the plant itself. Because of this, hydroseeding has become one of the most common and cost-efficient methods of controlling erosion for solar farms. Let’s take a closer look at the process in order to learn more about hydroseeding for solar farms in Alabama.
Hydroseeding: The Process
The hydroseeding process can be broken down into a few simple steps. First, the designated area of soil is prepared for application. This can mean tilling (if possible), loosening topsoil, and lightly watering the soil. This helps prepare the soil around a solar farm to receive the hydroseeding slurry. This next step in the process involves using industrial hydroseeding equipment to apply the hydroseeding slurry to the solar farm’s soil.
Hydroseeding slurry is a mixture of a few key ingredients that help facilitate quick grass growth. These ingredients include grass seeds, fertilizer, and water. As this slurry is being sprayed onto the soil of the solar farm, the seeds are embedded and can begin to take root. This will then lead to a lawn of healthy green grass sprouting at the solar farm. Given time, this produces a full lawn of thick grass, helping hold soil in place.
Erosion on Solar Farms
Solar farms face the problem of erosion for a number of reasons. The nature of solar farms means that they are often located in open fields and areas of grass without the protection of other plants or tree cover. This can leave them exposed to scorching sun rays, as well as heavy winds in the open terrain. These factors, along with heavy rain, can have the effect of quickly washing and blowing away the soil on a solar farm.
When erosion takes place at a solar farm, the expensive equipment there can be put at risk. This includes infrastructure damage to the soil where equipment is installed. By shoring up the solar farm’s defense against erosion through erosion control tactics like hydroseeding, solar farm managers help protect their investment, equipment, and productivity.
Hydroseeding for Solar Farms
The way that hydroseeding helps protect solar farms is simple. Not only does hydroseeding quickly create a healthy lawn of green grass at the solar farm, but it also helps control erosion. Loose topsoil at solar farms is liable to blow or wash away during extreme weather, leaving the ground where equipment is installed compromised and diminished.
Hydroseeding helps establish a network of deep grass roots that work together to hold loose soil in place, including topsoil. This dramatically decreases the risk of erosion, helping the soil to better absorb rainfall and preventing loose soil from blowing or washing away. This is incredibly helpful and important for solar farms, as controlling erosion helps to prevent costly damage that the plant can suffer, all while establishing structural stability and productivity of the solar farm.
Commercial Hydroseeding for Solar Farms with Burns Environmental
Burns Environmental is Alabama’s premier hydroseeding company. With many years of experience assisting with erosion control and grass growth throughout Alabama, Burns is prepared to help protect your solar farm from the costly and damaging effects of erosion.
If you are interested in commercial hydroseeding for a solar farm or other commercial site, you can contact us here to get started. You can also give us a quick call to talk about your project or to learn more about the environmental services that we provide throughout the state.