Having many other uses, steel piles are often used to build the foundations for utility-scale PV applications. In use, they become exposed to different types of corrosion of various extents. Some of the main elements that impact the level of corrosion are pile shape, driving method and the type of material. Common shapes include H-piles, pipe-piles, screw piles and disc piles – all of which can have different material types. H-piles have become the most used for solar structures, because they have very good structural characteristics. This allows them to be well-suited for the loads seen in solar installations.
In general, corrosion takes place when two different metals come into contact with a conductive liquid, resulting in a flow of DC electricity. Pile corrosion can be divided into two groups: Atmospheric and soil corrosion.
