Solar Farm Baler

Balers are already considered a “green” piece of equipment. This is because they make it cost effective for many materials to be shipped and handled for recycling. Basically the reason is because they save material from going to a land fill, and make for a dense and square bale for reduced cost in hauling.

Where is it at?

At RefurBalers we were excited to receive this call, because down near the bottom of Virginia there is a 210MW Solar Farm. It was actually easier to tell other “Yanks” almost in North Carolina, so they had the idea of how far away it was. But needless to say it was a lot of solar panels, acres and acres of them. This baler went to work baling cardboard and plastic at a Solar Farm, and here are some of my questions I asked while I was there.

Site View

So, Why Bother Baling if it is Temporary?

That is a good question most would say, and when you are creating a solar farm it is not very responsible to throw all this recyclable stuff away. “It only takes a little bit to be green while you are installing all these panels”, as I was told. You see, you are looking at thousands of solar panels that all come in plastic, and cardboard.

Also we install solar farms all across the country, so we have a machine that will go with us to every install site now.

Who Was Responsible

Well, it was a joint effort, but corporate gave us an allowance for waste disposal. We just used part of that money toward the baler. The expected savings should give it a pay back period by the end of this job, but definitely the next site will see ROI just in savings..

How Much Cardboard is There?

With a snicker, “a lot”. You see there are hundreds of acres of solar farm. Up the road, across the road, and here where we are standing, plus over there. 210MW, and just averaging to 1000w per panel, that is 210,000 panels, which means 210,000 cardboard boxes. When you write the number down it is a no brainer about the need for a baler.

How Did You Hook it Up?

We used an onsite generator that would run the 10HP 3 phase motor. Also we set it up on a large thick metal plate to allow for mobility, but still secure and stable enough that it wouldn’t tip. That way we could move it along as the job moved acre to acre with the panels being installed.

What Was the Reason to Use a Baler

“The main reason, besides being green and showing the local public that we are serious about the environment, it saved on hauling fees, and weight of the cardboard sitting in open top roll-offs. The cardboard was expected to absorb its weight in water and that would mean we would be paying to throw rain water away.”

So if you are thinking about a Baler, or you want to start a Solar Farm, better give us a call!

If you want to learn more about, and see pricing on how to use solar panels for your home or cabin check out these awesome kits and how to books on Amazon.  Rather your off grid, or just assisting solar technology is where it can help save you money.