Solar Foundation Moulds · Fixed-Tilt & Tracker
Plastic moulds for precast concrete solar foundation blocks, pile caps and ballast bases for ground-mounted PV farms, rooftop distributed solar and single-axis tracker projects. Catalogue sizes 30×20×30 and 30×30×30 in stock; custom bolt patterns, embed plates, lifting holes and cable grooves built from your foundation drawing.
A photovoltaic pier (also called a PV pile cap, solar foundation block or ballast block) is the precast concrete base that the solar mounting structure bolts or rests on. The mould has to produce a dimensionally consistent block because the post bases or tracker bearings are bolted to it — a few millimetres of error across a few thousand blocks makes installation much slower.
Zhihua supplies PP / ABS plastic moulds for the common flat-pier profiles and builds custom moulds from your foundation drawing. We can cast in bolt pockets, anchor-plate recesses, cable grooves, drainage holes and lifting anchors as part of the mould so the finished block comes out ready for the mounting crew.
The two flat-pier profiles we keep in tooling. Custom bolt patterns and embed details can be added to either, or a new mould cut to your foundation section.
Smaller grooved pier for lightweight support seats and cable routing
Larger grooved pier with room for a wider support seat and hardware
Simple flat block used as a ballast base or where no groove is required
Solar foundations look simple, but the cost of a wrong mould shows up on site when the mounting crew cannot bolt the posts down. These are the points we check on every drawing before cutting a mould.
Send the pier section, bolt layout and project quantity. We will come back within one working day with mould feasibility, material choice, lead time and an FOB Ningbo/Shanghai price.
Send Pier DrawingWhatsApp NowThe two catalogue sizes we keep in tooling are 30 × 20 × 30 cm and 30 × 30 × 30 cm (length × width × height), available as grooved flat piers or plain flat piers. Most utility-scale projects use a custom size from the foundation drawing — those are cut to order.
Yes. Send the bolt size (M12 / M16 / M20 are common), centre-to-centre spacing, projection, and whether it is cast-in or post-installed. We build bolt pockets and embed-plate recesses directly into the mould so each block comes out ready to accept the mounting hardware without drilling.
Tracker piers have tighter positional tolerance on the bearing-plate bolts (typically ±1 mm rather than ±3 mm) and often a different plate size. For tracker work we usually recommend an ABS insert in a PP mould body — the insert holds tolerance over many pours while the PP body keeps the mould affordable.
PP is the default for standard grooved / plain piers and gives 150+ pour cycles. ABS is the better choice when the bolt pattern has to hold tight tolerance over thousands of pours (most tracker jobs), or when the mould has fine detail. Piers are simple rectangular shapes, so PP covers nearly all standard projects.
A solid 30 × 30 × 30 cm block is about 65 kg at standard 2,400 kg/m³ concrete. If your blocks will be placed by hand, add finger grooves to two sides of the mould. For machine placement, ask us to cast in a lifting socket or hole.
Simple modifications to a catalogue size (e.g. adding a groove or bolt pocket): 10–15 working days. A brand-new profile from a foundation drawing: 20–30 working days. Lead time is confirmed in writing after drawing review and deposit.
Yes. Most solar farms use two to four pier sizes across the site. Mixed-size orders can share one 20 ft or 40 HC container; we palletize by size and mark each pallet with the pier dimensions and quantity.
Yes, but they are different products. Ground piers anchor the racking with cast-in bolts or pockets; rooftop ballast blocks hold the array down by weight without penetrating the waterproof membrane, so they are usually lower and wider and are sized from the roof's allowable load (kg/m²), wind zone and rail section. Send the roof-load and wind data and we mould the size the engineering calls for.
There is no fixed number per MW: it follows the racking layout, support spacing, wind/snow zone and whether the array is fixed-tilt, ballasted-roof or tracker. Count the support/pier locations from your racking layout drawing, add a small breakage allowance, and confirm block weight against on-site handling (a solid 30×30×30 block is about 65 kg). Send us the layout and we can review the quantity and size list with you.
PV farms also use these alongside pier foundations on the DC-side and civil scope.