9 Design Tips for Ground-Mounted Solar Structures

Ground-mounted solar installations differ from rooftop systems in significant ways. Without building geometry constraints, designers have greater freedom to optimize panel orientation, tilt angles, and structural configurations.

But that freedom demands careful attention to load management, site adaptability, and long-term durability. Roll-formed steel components have become a preferred solution for ground-mount racking, offering the dimensional consistency, material flexibility, and production efficiency that large-scale projects require.

Whether you’re developing a utility-scale installation or a commercial ground solar array, decisions made early in the engineering process will influence installation speed, structural performance, and lifecycle costs. The following ten considerations can help engineers and project managers optimize their ground-mounted solar structures from concept through field assembly.

1. Start with Custom Structural Profiles

The foundation of any ground-mounted racking system lies in its structural elements. Roll-formed profiles such as C-channels, Z-purlins, and hat sections provide the strength-to-weight ratio and dimensional accuracy that large solar arrays require.

Unlike standard off-the-shelf shapes, custom roll-formed profiles offer two distinct advantages:

• Precision at Scale: Roll forming produces long, continuous sections with incredibly tight tolerances. This consistency is vital when assembling thousands of identical racks; even minor variations in standard parts can compound over a long row, leading to costly alignment issues in the field.
  
  
• Purpose-Built Efficiency: Custom design allows engineers to integrate stiffening ribs, specific flanges, or returns directly into the profile. This ensures the steel is placed only where load requirements demand it, resulting in a lighter, more efficient structure that eliminates the wasted material and unnecessary weight found in generic structural shapes.

By partnering with a roll former to develop application-specific profiles, you ensure that every millimeter of the cross-section is optimized for your project's unique environmental and structural needs.

2. Optimize for Field Assembly with Inline Punching

On-site labor is one of the largest expenses of ground-mount installation costs, making Design-for-Assembly (DfA) a critical priority. By integrating variable fastener patterns directly into the roll-forming process, components arrive ready for immediate installation—eliminating the need for costly field drilling or modifications.

Key strategies to improve assembly efficiency include:

• Precision Inline Punching: Integrating hole placement into the manufacturing line ensures every part matches the design specification perfectly. This guarantees that bolt patterns on mating components align the first time, every time.
  
  
• Future-Proof Patterns: Design hole patterns that can accommodate various module frame sizes. Since panel dimensions and mounting specs frequently evolve, a versatile hole layout allows your racking system to stay compatible with different hardware.
  
  
• Strategic Slotted Holes: Incorporate slotted holes to provide a "range of adjustment." This allows installers to compensate for minor foundation variances or tolerance stack-ups that naturally occur across long rows of racks.

The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of tools and decisions required on-site. When components fit together intuitively, and fasteners drop into place without force, crews can maintain high productivity and avoid the delays caused by "field-fixing" parts.

3. Choose Materials for Environment and Load Capacity

Selecting the right material is a balancing act between structural integrity and a 30-year service life. Because ground-mount arrays face decades of exposure, your choice of steel and coating is the primary defense against structural failure.

Standard Environments 

For most sites, galvanized steel provides an ideal mix of strength and cost-efficiency. Its zinc coating offers "sacrificial protection," preventing rust even if the surface is scratched.

Harsh Environments

In coastal areas with high salinity, industrial zones, or high-humidity regions, standard galvanization may fail prematurely. In these cases, aluminized steel or stainless steel may be required to prevent rapid corrosion.

Gauge vs. Load Capacity

The roll-forming process is highly adaptable to different material thicknesses. Engineers can specify heavier gauges for high-wind or heavy-snow zones, while utilizing lighter gauges in moderate climates to reduce material costs without compromising safety.

The Bottom Line: When evaluating material costs, look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Investing in premium, corrosion-resistant materials upfront often saves money by eliminating the need for future maintenance, recoating, or part replacements in hard-to-reach project sites.

4. Optimize Frame Geometry for Tilt and Airflow

Unlike rooftop arrays, ground-mounted systems allow for total control over tilt and orientation. By engineering these angles directly into the structural frame, you can maximize energy production while simplifying the installation process.

• Precision-Engineered Angles: Use roll-formed brackets, gussets, and supports to lock in the target tilt. When these components are manufactured to exact specifications, it eliminates the need for installers to perform "field shimming" or manual adjustments, which often lead to inconsistencies and wasted labor.
  
  
• Environmental Shedding: Designing the frame geometry for the site’s specific latitude helps optimize snow shedding and prevents debris accumulation, ensuring the modules remain clear and productive throughout the winter.
  
  
• Passive Thermal Management: Heat is the enemy of solar efficiency. Ensure your frame geometry promotes natural convection and airflow beneath the panels. By facilitating better ventilation, you can lower operating temperatures and boost the overall energy yield of the system.

By integrating these requirements into the roll-forming tooling from the start, you move the complexity from the field to the factory—resulting in a more reliable, higher-performing installation.

5. Engineer Strength Directly Into Every Profile

Ground-mount structures are essentially buildings without walls; they must withstand intense wind uplift, heavy snow loads, and seismic forces. To ensure safety and compliance, your structural engineering analysis must dictate the exact dimensions and thicknesses of your roll-formed components.

By coordinating early with your manufacturer, you can optimize load capacity through three key areas:

• Integrated Bracing Points: Roll-formed parts can be manufactured with pre-punched holes and slots designed specifically for engineered braces and crossbars. This ensures that reinforcement is added exactly where the math requires it, without needing field fabrication.

• Precision Connection Alignment: Connections are the most common points of failure. By ensuring your fastener patterns align perfectly with engineering calculations in the factory, you eliminate "improvised" field modifications that could compromise the system's structural integrity.

• Geometric Stiffening: Small adjustments to a profile, such as adding a stiffening rib to a web or slightly increasing a flange dimension, can significantly boost load capacity. A roll-forming partner can help you add this strength through geometry rather than just adding thicker, more expensive steel.

This collaborative approach ensures that every component is "right-sized"—strong enough to exceed code requirements, yet light enough to remain cost-competitive.

6. Standardize Long Lengths for Reduced Field Labor

Roll forming can produce long, continuous sections that would be impractical to fabricate using other methods. Where transportation allows, specifying longer structural sections reduces splice connections, fastener counts, and individual pieces that must be handled in the field. Fewer splice points also means fewer potential sources of misalignment.

Long continuous sections improve structural continuity, allowing for more efficient load transfer compared to multi-segment assemblies. Working with your roll former to determine maximum practical length helps balance manufacturing efficiency against logistics complexity– in many cases, labor savings from reduced assembly time more than offset additional shipping costs. 

7. Incorporate Adjustable Features

No matter how precise the engineering is, field conditions are rarely perfect. Unlevel terrain or foundation shifts require a racking system that can adapt. By incorporating slotted holes, telescoping sections, or adjustable brackets, you allow installers to fine-tune panel alignment during assembly without compromising the project's timeline.

To ensure adjustability doesn't become a structural weakness, follow these guidelines:

Precision Slotting: Roll forming can produce exact slot dimensions that provide a wide range of movement while maintaining the necessary "grip" for structural fasteners.

Strategic Positioning: Adjustability must be engineered with load paths in mind. For example, slots oriented perpendicular to primary loads can reduce connection strength. Place adjustable features where they offer the most benefit without undermining the structural integrity of the joint.

Clear Installer Guidance: Clearly distinguish between "adjustable" connections and "fixed" structural points in your documentation. This prevents field crews from accidentally loosening or modifying critical connections that must remain rigid to meet engineering specs.

The goal is to provide enough "play" to handle real-world site variances while ensuring the final, tightened structure remains rock-solid.

8. Optimize Logistics Through Strategic Pre-Kitting

The journey from the manufacturing floor to the final installation site involves numerous touchpoints—each representing an opportunity to reclaim lost time. Pre-kitting transforms this process by grouping the specific components required for each rack section into clearly labeled, sequenced kits.

This method eliminates the "treasure hunt" on the jobsite, reducing inventory clutter and the time crews spend sorting through bulk hardware. When installers can grab a kit tailored to their immediate assembly sequence, productivity climbs, and error rates drop. Leading roll-form partners support this by configuring pack-outs and packaging to mirror the actual installation workflow.

On utility-scale projects involving thousands of parts, this level of organizational foresight is the difference between a project staying on schedule or falling behind.

9. Engage Engineering and Supply Chain Early

The most successful ground-mount projects are built on early alignment between structural engineering, manufacturing, and installation teams. By integrating these stakeholders at the design phase, load requirements and assembly sequences are baked into the tooling and production plan from day one.

An experienced roll-form partner acts as more than a supplier; they serve as a design consultant. They can often identify profile refinements or material adjustments that reduce weight and cost without sacrificing structural integrity. Early collaboration also provides visibility into tooling lead times and material sourcing, ensuring that when production begins, every part is precision-engineered for a multi-decade service life.