RENEWABLE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
GGC leads the way in offering specialised geotechnical engineering services for the Renewable Energy Infrastructure sector. We have provided geotechnical support for solar, wind, green hydrogen, and battery storage projects across Australia, and offer experience throughout all stages of a development.
We are experts in:
- Desktop studies – for due diligence, prepurchase & prefeasibility studies, geohazard risk assessment
- Geotechnical Investigations – for foundation conditions, thermal and electrical ground profiling, material identification, access road upgrades, and geohazard assessment
- Geotechnical Design and Recommendations – for foundation selection and design, geotechnical parameter definition, material reuse, pavement design, earthworks strategies, material specifications
- Earthworks and Construction Support – for earthworks verification, compaction testing, QA testing, pile verification
Geotechnical ground investigations for Renewable Energy projects often need to be framed within an engineering context; in order to succeed, they must target geological conditions and be commensurate with the infrastructure being constructed. For Renewable Energy projects, modularisation and constructability of the foundations is often key element of making the projects commercially viable.
We understand that Renewable Energy projects often go through a number of iterations from land selection, development approvals, infrastructure design, and construction, and GGC are able to stage our involvement to suit a projects life and its budget. Our initial involvement is often during Prepurchase or Prefeasibility with a Desktop Study to assess:
- Published geological and groundwater conditions
- Historical land uses
- Geohazard risk assessments
- Potential availability of local borrow material sources for construction
We have a team of highly experienced Engineering Geologists who plan and implement ground investigations all over Australia and occasionally overseas. We organise the HSE docs, underground services locators, excavators, drill crews, CPT rigs, geophysics for our investigations with scopes often comprising:
- Geological and geohazard mapping
- Excavation of test pits for ground conditions, excavatability assessments, and borrow material identification
- Drilling of boreholes for deeper foundations, specific ground conditions, and groundwater monitoring
- Geotechnical logging of materials to AS 1726 (Geotechnical Site Investigations)
- Cone Penetration Testing for ground conditions
- Infiltration testing for stormwater and runoff drainage design
- Electrical Resistivity testing for earthing design
- Thermal Resistivity and Conductivity testing for cable design
- Sampling for geotechnical and environmental laboratory testing
- Factual and Interpretive Reporting
Once we have information on the ground conditions and design information, our Geotechnical Engineers specialise in providing:
- Foundation options based on concept or detailed designs and prevailing ground conditions
- Geotechnical design parameters for foundation design, earth retaining structures, and pavement design
- Slope Instability assessments
- Material Specification recommendations
- Earthworks strategies
- Temporary works design
- Engineering review
During the construction phase it is important that earthworks and foundations are suitably verified, and the tolerances and expectations of the designs are alignment with the ground that has been uncovered and formations that are being prepared. GGC frequently carry out:
- Foundation excavation inspections
- Earthworks verification (compaction control) and certification
- Pile verification
- Borrow material management
- Temporary works design and verification
Click here to email or give us a call to discuss your project and click on the links below to see how we've assisted in other Renewable Energy Infrastructure projects.
Geotechnical and geological consultants pty ltd operates a formal integrated management system that outlines our approach to quality assurance, health and safety and environment management. Our policy statements for quality, health and safety and environmental management can be provided on request
