The airports division of the Hawaii Department of Transportation has partnered with REC Solar to install roof-mounted PV systems at Honolulu International and Kahului Airports. The installations help support Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative’s goal to achieve 70% clean energy by 2030.
Mounting manufacturer Sollega provided its FastRack510 (FR510) to mount 8,148 Trina and JA Solar 72-cell PV modules. The one-piece FR510 requires no assembly, and it’s universal design allowed REC to install four different models of PV modules with the same installation procedure.
The system’s non-corrosive Ultramid material is beneficial tropical and costal region. The high array density of the FR510 allowed the DOT and REC to meet their production goals.
The airports are not only in hurricane prone regions, but also in areas of high seismic activity. Minimal seismic anchors were installed at a rate of up to five per man hour.
Combined, the arrays were spread over more than ten individual flat roofs. Many of the roofs were tiered, making it difficult in some cases for the crew to move equipment to the upper levels. While the FR510 was easily staged, Sollega’s engineering team was able to keep the ballast to a minimum to reduce this inherent inconvenience.
As one of the nation’s leading commercial solar integrators, REC has extensive experience in Hawaii, as well as with installing the FastRack mounting system. They were able to stage and install the mounting system quickly and easily.
Sollega’s flexible wire management system and high roof clearance made stringing modules and performing home runs just as simple and fast as installing the modules.
tom says
I worked on the maui airport for REC Solar project with this sollega’s “fast rack”. This was the second 3+megawatt I was a layout forman. REC Solar is a JOKE! If you hire these people for your solar project you can count on the worst supervisors out there..
PLEASED BE WARNED! They will fire you just as fast as they will hire you. You are just a body to them, and if they don’t like you they will cut you.. I have been in the trades for 14 years and this is the worst unprepared company I have ever worked for. I can count on one hand the supervisors that have lied to me face to face and REC’s project manager PETER LEE did so!.(the reason he got fired). sorry for venting… lol..
As far as the fast rack system, this was a horrible system. I hate to sound like a negative nancy but its true. The buckets that they use are flexible and the tabs to keep the panels in a straight line always break. I had to use a transit for over a football field and a half.. Every installer hated trying to get the panels straight. You have to move around buckets that are about 30-60lbs, it is back breaking.
The buckets are held down by either concrete blocks or anchors attached to the roof.. however most of the buckets on the maui airport roof needed anchors attached to the roof. when you set 200 bucket a day you can not anchor 150 buckets to the roof. so what you do is put a concrete blocks in the buckets(for the time being) then set your panels. When all the panels are set you take off the panels, move the one concrete blocks one by one (a football field), then anchor the bucket, and put back the panel.. crazy system, If you are looking for a system, look at a better set up than this one.
So hopefully REC can get there sh*t together and stop hiring people that don’t know what there doing. More than Half of our crew walked off the job because of our project manager PETER LEE. Shame on you REC..
I’m not trying to be a disgruntle employee, but i hope that people can see whats going on, on the front lines. If I ran REC I would like to here from more people like me, telling them how they should care about me Thomas Gould, not just a number in there pay chart.
And for you sollega, I worked with all the other lead install crews, and they all said the same thing I have said. It is not faster, it is a pain in the butt to move those buckets 2-3inches with 50-60lbs in them, 3000 times.
if you are part of rec or sollega, please contact me if you want. Tomgouldmaui@gmail.com
I hope this will help out some people.. Thanks
KY Valentino says
Maybe because in wet, tropical, coastal weather the salty air leads to corrosion of metal faster.