Case Study Gigasolar: MDB LV 300 PRO Solar Farm Green Maintenance

This case study comes from our Japanese Distributor, Gigasolar, responsible for distributing and servicing MDB products in Japan. Gigasolar also operate and maintain solar farms throught Japan.

One of the pain points that Gigasolar experiences is the grass maintenance in their solar farms. Grass and weeds can grow to 1-3 meters, blocking sunlight and thus reducing the efficiency of power generation. It becomes the single most important critical maintenance item of a solar farm. Furthermore, having a clean solar farm aids the maintenance and inspection of the solar panels.

The challenges of maintaining the grass and weeds are two-fold. The first is the operator safety and health and the second is finding the most cost-effective method of green maintenance. Gigasolar has used the LV 300 PRO and the LV 500 PRO to create cost savings and efficiencies compared to Hand Mowers.

Operator Safety

Prior to deploying LV 300 PRO Green Climber machines, Gigasolar was using hand operated grass and weed cutters. Using a hand mower presents operator safety issues involving risks of heatstroke, bee and hornet bites, snake bites, vibration and fall risk from steep slopes. By using the Green Climber, the workers can mitigate these risks, while accomplishing the same task with a much lower physical workload on themselves.

Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness

The efficiency and cost analysis of the LV 300 PRO in head-to-head competition with the hand mower yields some impressive results.

Katsunobu Aoki, CEO of Gigasolar states “The use of the MDB Green Climber machines have greatly improved our operation and maintenance of our solar farms, while improving our employee satisfaction.”

The LV 300 PRO is 5 times faster than the hand mower:

• Hand mower: 600㎡/day. (6 hours work)
• LV 300 PRO: 3,000㎡/day. (6 hours work)

The LV 300 PRO is 5 times more cost effective:

• Hand mower: €0.35(¥43.5)/1㎡
• LV 300 PRO: €0.065 (¥9.0)/1㎡

A further cost savings not shown above is when a hand mower is used, the grass and weed cuttings need to be removed. However, the LV 300 PRO with mulching knives on the flail head can cut the clippings to a size where they can be left to decay into the soil.

Finally, the workers that operate the Green Climbers are much happier in their work with lower stress level on their bodies and minds.