From Design Challenge to Proven Solution: 21 Transformer Base Installations

We’ve just installed our 21st transformer foundation base on a solar farm, and it’s a good moment to look back at the design challenge that kicked this whole system off.

The brief wasn’t simple: accommodate large cable entry zones, variable ground conditions, and a requirement to keep everything fast, safe, and repeatable.

A full pit would have solved the access issue — but it would also have been far more complex, slower to build, and unnecessarily expensive for what the project actually needed.

So we developed a shallow ground‑beam foundation on six helical piles – this avoids heavy construction but provides the support needed when the cable excavations open up around the ends.

Twenty‑one installs later, the system has proven exactly why that approach mattered: consistent delivery, low carbon, minimal disruption, and a detail that works wherever it lands.

Here’s to the next 21!