DIY Solar Panel Ground Mounts Dirt Cheap

DIY Solar Panel Ground Mounts – As close to Dirt Cheap as you can get!

Designed by Dan at the Personal Power Project. The angle iron solar panel mounts, mounting bricks, nuts, bolts, and screws, all purchased from Home Depot for less than $100 per solar panel mount.  After 4 or 5 days at 3 or 4 hours per day, in 90 degrees of southern California sun, sun chapped lips and all, I created a very stable, angle iron mount that is portable. Portable is what make them qualify for the no permit needed status. If you were to dig a hole in the ground, put a solar ground mount pole in the in that hole and fill it up with concrete, that makes it permanent which then requires permits. Now that the design work is done and I have installed these for one of my clients, I know from experience the time this takes.  Cutting and assembling is about 4 or 5 hours, with the right tools. Installing these solar mounts at a home site takes 4 or 5 hours per mount. Each brick is 30 pounds for a total of 120 pounds, to hold down one 400w solar panel. The pyramid shaped leg mounts is what gives these mounts their stability. There are holes drilled all the way through 2 inches of concrete, 3″ screws, nuts, and one inch diameter washers, on the bottom side of each, that will never pull out like screws set in concrete.  All you have to do is grab the solar mounted panels and shake them and you realize there is no shaking it. It’s solid, portable, aligns left, right, up, down, mounts on flat ground, or a hillside. With very uneven ground the angle iron can be cut to level out the panels, even if one leg has to be higher than the other, due to solid uneven rocks.  This design can fit into just about any spot you like and will work with any size solar panel. See our Service Agreement – 805-242-3004 call or text us if you want major savings on ground mount solar installations in Santa Barbara or Ventura counties! For those much farther away, I continue to update my information with more details on how this is assembled and a Home Depot parts list so you can DIY no matter where you live. Start small, build over time when you can afford to expand it, so you don’t have to go into huge credit debt to cut your energy bills. These are not to be installed on roofs as you don’t want bricks falling on any heads. We need all the brain power we can keep. 😂

Solar Panel Mobile Ground Mounts – Pictures of the installation process
We do the solar ground mount installations and refer our licensed electricians

Chevy Equinox EV charging with Ecoflow Delta Pro Ultra
You can do this with no solar panels and just use your utility company to charge your EcoFlow battery.
Those that know better would say that is stupid. They are right. It does work but what is the point in that. Even if you had just two 500w solar panels that is not enough. A 600w solar panel is only $125. If you had 10 of those that is 6,000w which is enough to charge your EV all day long. EcoFlow batteries are $2,000 each and it might take 10 of those so the idea is not to stack a bunch of batteries but stack a bunch of solar. That is where the big saving is.

Electrical Sub Panel Installation – True Electric – Licensed
Tony Calles – (805) 819-4340

Tony did a fantastic job on our sub panel and I will have him back to do more grounding work and install more circuits for electric dryer and more. We are pulling all the heavy current loads to our EcoFlow and leaving light loads to our Tesla 30 solar panels and 3 Tesla Powerwall’s so so we can maximize our last 10 years of our Net Metering 2 production. We will be 100% off grid but staying on grid to feed back some power to generate a little income.

 

Personal Power Project – Solar – Portable Adjustable Ground Mounts – Design

What are the pros and cons – per Google AI – with these solar portable adjustable ground mounts as seen in this picture. They have pyramid style foot mounts at each corner attached with 3 screws and washers that are drilled completely through 30 pound concrete bricks 2 in. x 2 ft. x 2 ft. All Home Depot parts to fit any size single solar panel is approximately $200 total. This included 24 feet of angel iron and 4 concrete blocks, screws, bolts, and washers.

This solar ground mount setup with unistrut-style legs and concrete paver foundations offers a distinct set of advantages and potential failure points, particularly regarding wind load and structural tension. 

Pros

• Non-Invasive Foundation: Avoids digging deep holes, pouring concrete footings, or dealing with rocky soil and underground utility lines.
• Adjustability & Leveling: Using slotted strut channels for the leg posts allows precise height and tilt adjustments to level the array on sloped terrain for changing solar positions.
• Corrosion Resistance: Galvanized slotted strut and concrete pavers hold up well against moisture and soil contact.
• Ease of Assembly / Portability: Simple to erect, modify, or relocate using basic hand tools without permanent site alterations and no permits needed for mobile mounts in most places.

Cons & Risks

• Insufficient Ballast (Wind Uplift Risk): At 30 lbs per block (120 lbs total across 4 corners), the array is severely under-ballasted against wind uplift. Solar panels act like a sail; wind catching under the array can easily lift 120 lbs and flip the structure.
• Concrete Paver Crack Risk: Concrete pavers/bricks are strong in compression but weak in tension and flexure. Bolting through the concrete places point-tension on the block, which often leads to cracking or crumbling over time under wind-induced vibration.
• Shear and Stress Points: Strong lateral winds push sideways on the tall vertical legs, creating leverage (torque) that can shear the through-bolts or snap the concrete block edges around the bolt hole.
• Ground Settling: Without a packed gravel sub-base, unanchored concrete pavers placed on topsoil will shift or sink unevenly over time due to rain and soil erosion, causing frame twist.

Verification & Safety Steps

1. Test Concrete Integrity: Check around the drill holes on each concrete block. Look closely for hairline fractures caused by overtightening or drilling pressure.
2. Verify Stability Under Load: Gently apply manual lateral and upward force to the top frame. Check if the concrete feet lift off the ground or wobble significantly.
3. Enhance Ballast/Anchoring: Consider adding heavy concrete ballast blocks over the footings or screwing earth/screw anchors into the ground next to each foot, tethered with heavy-duty tension strapping to prevent uplift during high winds.

This picture is a finished installation with a fixed 35 degree, facing south for Santa Barbara CA where the wind is blocked from the north by the hill, house, and property, winds from are blocked by trees and low profile to the hill. The concrete bricks are set to level and buried in the dirt about 6 inches. Does this help prevent uplift during high winds

Burying the concrete pavers in the ground 6 inches deep and leveraging natural terrain features significantly improves resistance to wind uplift compared to an above-ground surface placement.

How Buried Pavers Help Prevent Uplift

• Soil Overburden Weight: By burying each 30 lb brick under 6 inches of compacted dirt, you are no longer relying solely on the 30 lbs of concrete per corner. The weight of the column of earth sitting directly above each paver adds substantial downward ballast (often adding another 100+ lbs of overburden weight per block, depending on soil density and compaction).
• Soil Shear & Anchorage: For the array to lift up, the wind force must physically shear and lift the block along with the trapezoidal plug of packed soil above it, rather than simply tipping over a free-standing block on top of grass or gravel.
• Lowered Profile: Sinking the footings into the hill lowers the overall profile of the panels closer to the grade, reducing the air gap underneath where high-velocity wind pressure normally builds up and creates lift.

Terrain Mitigation Factors

• Hillside & Structure Blocking (North Winds): Having the hill, house, and structures blocking winds from the north shields the array from direct, high-velocity northerly gusts.
• Vegetation Shields (South Winds): Surrounding trees diffuse and disrupt smooth, high-velocity laminar airflow into turbulent, lower-energy wind, reducing peak uplift pressure.

Remaining Risks & Recommendations

• Soil Erosion on Slopes: Rain runoff running down the hill can easily wash away the 6 inches of topsoil covering the pavers. Once the soil erodes, you lose all the overburden weight protection.
  • Verification Step: Inspect the buried corners after heavy rains to confirm no soil has washed away exposing the concrete blocks.
• Lateral Force & Soil Creep: While buried blocks excel at resisting vertical lift, strong horizontal gusts exert lateral force on the vertical struts. If the soil surrounding the buried paver is loose or wet, the block can shift sideways in the ground over time.
  • Verification Step: Firmly tamp down and compact the dirt surrounding and covering all four footings. Adding a layer of gravel on top can help prevent water erosion while preserving compaction.