Cleve Hill Electrical Compound: 1,000+ Screw Piles for Europe's Largest Solar Park

Europe’s largest solar project, Cleve Hill Solar Park on the north Kent coast in the UK, needed solid foundations for its critical electrical infrastructure. Paalupiste’s sister company Helicasol, specialists in optimising foundations for solar parks, supplied and installed more than a thousand Finnish-made helical piles for the substation compound linked to the solar farm.

The site threw up plenty of challenges. Soft clay ran down 8–10 metres before hitting firmer ground. Strict environmental rules were in place to keep disturbance to a minimum in the bird breeding areas. And the lingering risk of unexploded WWII ordnance meant extra caution in every step of planning and execution.

Helicasol’s engineers developed custom helical pile solutions for a range of buildings: switchrooms, transformer stations, floodgates and diesel generators. Using helical piles to support the concrete slabs cut out massive excavations, lorry loads of spoil, huge amounts of concrete and rebar, and let the work move ahead much faster than conventional foundations would have allowed.

In summer 2023, two Finnish installation crews headed over to team up with local specialists FGS Pilcher. Despite the tricky conditions, the helical piles proved a great fit: quick to install, almost silent and with very little vibration. These qualities were especially valuable in such a sensitive natural area where noise and ground disturbance had to be kept to an absolute minimum.

Cleve Hill demonstrates how helical pile technology works not just for solar panel tracker and fixed racking foundations, but also for essential supporting infrastructure like substations and battery energy storage systems (BESS). The project was delivered on schedule in close partnership with main contractor Gallagher and local piling partner FGS Pilcher.