Before Buying a Solar Carport: What EPCs Should Check First

A practical 10-point solar carport checklist for EPC engineers and procurement managers — covering soil reports, fire lanes, wind zones, permits, and supplier qualification before any RFQ goes out.

Before Buying a Solar Carport: What EPCs Should Check First

Most solar carport projects that run over budget or over schedule share a common root cause: the RFQ went out before the site was understood. Steel gets ordered. Columns get fabricated. Then the geotech report arrives and the foundation design needs a complete revision. Or the fire marshal flags a lane obstruction. Or the permit authority asks for a structural calculation note that the supplier cannot provide.

Ten questions separate EPCs who close carport projects on time from those who learn the hard way. Answer all of them before you write a single line of specification.

10-Point Solar Carport EPC Checklist

1. Do You Have a Geotechnical or Soil Investigation Report?

Every solar carport column transfers load to the ground through a foundation — either a concrete spread footing or a cast-in-place pile. The bearing capacity, lateral resistance, and frost depth of that foundation depend entirely on the soil profile beneath the site.

Ask: Has a geotechnical investigation been carried out for this specific site? Does it include SPT N-values or CPT data, groundwater depth, and frost penetration depth?

Without a site-specific geotech report, any foundation design is a guess. Column loads for a typical commercial H-beam carport spanning 8m can exceed 80 kN vertical and 15 kN horizontal per column. A design based on assumed soil parameters is a liability. If the site owner says "it's the same as the building next door," that is not a substitute.

If no report exists, budget 2–4 weeks and commission one before finalising the structural specification.

2. Has an Underground Utility Scan Been Completed?

Carport columns require excavation. Foundation piles on commercial lots regularly encounter buried electrical conduits, drainage pipes, telecoms ducts, and — on industrial sites — pressurised gas or chemical lines.

Ask: Has a utility detection survey (GPR scan or utility marking service) been completed across the full column grid footprint?

A single strike on an undetected utility line can shut a project down for weeks, expose the EPC to significant liability, and require a full redesign of the column layout. Schedule the scan before column spacing is finalised, not after.

3. What Are the Fire Lane and Emergency Access Requirements?

Building codes and fire authority standards in most jurisdictions require unobstructed emergency vehicle access lanes. A standard fire apparatus needs a minimum clear width of 3.6m to 4.5m and a vertical clearance of 4.0m to 4.5m (jurisdiction-dependent). A carport column placed inside a fire lane may fail inspection regardless of structural quality.

Ask: Has the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) or fire marshal been consulted on the column placement grid? Are there pre-existing fire lane markings or minimum clear-width requirements on the site plan?

Map column positions against the site's fire access plan before issuing the structural layout for fabrication.

4. What Are the Local Wind Zone and Snow Load Design Values?

Carport structures are classified as buildings in most structural codes — not as equipment. That means site-specific wind and snow loads drive the entire structural design: column sections, connection details, foundation depth, and anchor bolt patterns.

Ask: What is the basic wind speed for this site under the applicable standard (ASCE 7-16, Eurocode EN 1991-1-4, or the local equivalent)? What is the ground snow load? Has exposure category been determined?

A supplier offering a "standard" carport design without requesting your site's wind zone is not engineering — it is a catalogue sale. For sites in typhoon corridors, coastal zones above C4, or high-altitude snow regions, the design loads can be two to three times higher than temperate-zone defaults. Insist on site-specific load data before accepting any structural package.

5. What Are the Parking Bay Dimensions and Column Placement Constraints?

Solar carport column placement must be coordinated with the existing parking layout. Standard bay widths range from 2.4m (compact) to 2.7m (standard) to 3.0m (accessible), and aisle widths from 5.5m to 7.5m. A column placed in a stall reduces bay count. A column in an aisle creates a traffic obstruction.

Ask: What is the bay width, aisle width, and total grid dimensions? Are there accessible (ADA/disability) parking requirements that constrain column placement? Is there an existing painted grid that must be respected?

Column spacing on commercial H-beam or Y-shaped carports typically follows 5m or 7.5m structural bays. If the parking grid does not align with efficient column spacing, the structural system may need to be adapted — which affects cost and lead time.

6. Is There a Conduit Plan for EV Charging Infrastructure?

Solar carports and EV charging are increasingly co-located. If EV chargers are planned — now or in the future — the structural design must accommodate conduit routing from the roof to each column, through the column base, and into the ground slab.

Ask: How many EV charger pedestals are planned, and where? Is conduit routing integrated into the hollow column design? Has the cable tray path from the inverter to the EVSE panel been defined?

Retrofitting EV charging conduit into a completed carport structure is expensive. It requires core drilling through finished concrete, surface-mounted cable trunking, and often structural modifications to columns not designed for cable penetrations. Build the conduit plan into the structural package from the start.

7. Which Structural Code Applies, and Does Your Supplier Design to It?

Carport structures are subject to the building code of the jurisdiction where they are installed. ASCE 7-16 governs most of the Americas and parts of Asia. Eurocode EN 1991/EN 1993 governs Europe. JIS C 8955:2017 governs Japan. Many national standards in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa reference one of these with local amendments.

Ask: Which structural standard is mandated by the local building authority? Does your supplier have structural analysis capability in that standard, including load combination cases and connection design?

A supplier who uses a single proprietary calculation note regardless of project location is a red flag. Compliant structural engineering means site-specific inputs, the correct standard with the correct edition year, and documented load combinations. Solaracks provides SAP2000-based structural analysis aligned to both JIS C 8955:2017 and ASCE 7-16, with localisation for key emerging markets.

8. What Is the Permit Pathway and Expected Timeline?

Solar carports almost always require a building permit, not just an electrical permit. In many jurisdictions, a building permit for a structure covering more than a threshold area (commonly 500–1,000 m²) triggers a full structural submission, including stamped drawings from a licensed engineer, geotechnical supporting data, and sometimes a planning or zoning approval.

Ask: Does this installation require a building permit? Who is responsible for permit submission — the EPC or the site owner? What is the typical timeline for permit approval in this municipality? Are there zoning or land-use restrictions on permanent structures in this car park?

Permit delays are among the most common causes of carport project schedule overruns. In some European and Latin American jurisdictions, the review period alone can run 8–16 weeks. Build this into the project schedule before committing to a client handover date.

9. What Future Load Allowances Should Be Built Into the Roof Structure?

A carport roof designed exclusively for today's panel count and weight may not accommodate additions three years from now. EV charger mounting hardware, cable tray runs, safety anchor rails, LED lighting bars, and CCTV brackets all add dead load to the roof structure. A future inverter upgrade may require additional cable runs through the column section.

Ask: What is the maximum additional dead load the roof structure should be designed to carry beyond the current panel array? Should the column sections allow for cable tray conduit penetrations? Is a safety anchor or fall-arrest rail on the roof structure part of the future scope?

Adding a 10–15% dead load allowance to the roof structure at the design stage costs very little. Retrofitting additional structural capacity after fabrication is often impractical.

10. Can Your Supplier Provide a Full Structural Analysis Package?

The single most important supplier qualification for a solar carport is not price per kilogram of steel. It is whether the supplier can deliver a compliant structural analysis package that satisfies the building authority and protects the EPC from liability over a 25-year asset life.

Ask: Can the supplier provide a site-specific structural calculation note, including member utilisation ratios, connection capacity checks, and foundation design? Is the calculation based on the applicable code and the project's actual wind and snow data? Can they provide SAP2000 or equivalent FEA model files if requested?

A supplier who responds to this question with a catalogue spec sheet or a generic load table is not a structural engineering partner — it is a parts vendor. The difference matters when a structure experiences a wind event and the EPC is the party standing in front of the claims.

Summary: The Ten Questions

How Solaracks Supports EPCs Through This Checklist

Solaracks is not a catalogue supplier. Every carport project begins with a technical conversation that covers all ten of the questions above. The team provides SAP2000-based structural analysis, load calculations aligned to JIS C 8955:2017 and ASCE 7-16, and design adapted to the local wind zone and permit requirements of the project location.

Quote and preliminary design within 24 hours. Load calculation upon request. Over 3GW of project experience since 2012.

If you are at the pre-procurement stage and need a technical partner to work through this checklist before the RFQ goes out, contact the Solaracks engineering team at solaracks.com.

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