North Carolina State University engineering students create mowing equipment prototype

Cypress Creek recently sponsored the mechanical engineering senior design project for 30 graduating engineering students from North Carolina State University. We asked the students to develop a safe and efficient solution to mowing underneath solar modules and racking.

Vegetation management is an important component to O&M Services. Vegetation, if not properly maintained, can interfere with solar energy production by shading modules and creating other hazards. Continuous improvement in our Vegetation Management program is critical as the fleet we manage on behalf of Cypress Creek and our customers grows past 3.7GW, and with it, hundreds more acres of property to maintain.

After a year of hard work with our Director of Vegetation Management, Bobby Eiseman, and Performance Engineer, Chris Downs (NCSU, Chemical Engineering, 2019), six teams of students fully designed and developed full prototypes which they presented at their senior design day. After all presentations, we were able to choose our top three designs. The finalists were Team 4 with an innovative claw shaped rotating mowing head, the Panel Pruners with a pivoting flail mower, and the Lawn Rangers. The first-place prize went to the Lawn Rangers team, pictured above, for creating the prototype that best adhered to all criteria while also taking feedback from our vegetation maintenance team into account.

We are proud of our local universities and were very excited to be able to support innovation and foster a continued relationship with NCSU. Learn more about Cypress Creek O&M Services.

Cypress Creek Renewables
Cypress Creek Renewables is powering a sustainable future, one project at a time. We develop, finance, own and operate utility-scale and distributed facilities across the country. With 11 gigawatts of solar developed and more than 3.7 gigawatts under management, Cypress Creek is one of the country’s leading solar and storage companies. For more information about Cypress Creek, please visit www.ccrenew.com.