Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-10-31 Origin: Site
Technical Choice: A Comparative Analysis of Brand Advantages in Rotary Drilling Rigs —— Intelligence, Power Systems, and Energy-Saving Technologies Amid the global energy transition wave, the photovoltaic industry, as a key pillar of the renewable energy sector, is flourishing at an unprecedented pace. From vast deserts to continuous mountain ranges, and from rooftops in bustling cities to fields in tranquil rural areas, photovoltaic power stations are becoming increasingly common, with their installed capacity continuously rising. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global photovoltaic installations are projected to grow severalfold over the next decade, playing a pivotal role in alleviating energy crises and addressing climate change.
Pile foundation construction is a fundamental step in the development of photovoltaic power plants, akin to the cornerstone of a skyscraper, as its quality and efficiency directly impact the stability and power generation efficiency of the entire plant. Piles bear the critical responsibility of supporting photovoltaic racks and modules, requiring steadfastness under various complex geological conditions and resilience against natural disasters such as strong winds and earthquakes. If issues arise during pile foundation construction, such as pile tilting or insufficient bearing capacity, they may lead to damage to photovoltaic modules, reduce power generation efficiency, and even trigger safety incidents. Moreover, as competition in the photovoltaic industry intensifies, shortening construction cycles and lowering costs have become industry goals, imposing higher demands on pile foundation construction techniques and equipment.
Among various pile foundation construction equipment, the rotary drilling rig stands out as the ideal choice for achieving a balance between efficiency and cost-effectiveness in photovoltaic pile foundation construction. With its unique working principles and technical advantages, it demonstrates exceptional adaptability and
efficiency under diverse complex geological conditions, ushering in new transformations for photovoltaic power station construction.
Before the widespread application of rotary drilling rigs, traditional photovoltaic pile foundation construction mainly relied on equipment such as impact drills and rotary drills. These devices have exposed many problems in long-term practice, becoming a bottleneck restricting the efficiency and cost control of photovoltaic power station construction.
(1) The Challenge of Construction Efficiency
The construction progress of traditional drilling rigs is extremely slow. Taking the impact drill as an example, its working principle involves repeatedly striking the rock and soil mass with a heavy hammer to break it apart and discharge it from the borehole. Under normal geological conditions, the daily drilling capacity of an impact drill is only 5–8 meters. This is because the lifting and dropping of the heavy hammer during the impact process consumes a significant amount of time, and each impact must wait until the broken rock and soil fragments are fully discharged before the next strike can be performed. When dealing with complex geological conditions, such as hard rock layers or large-grained gravel layers, the efficiency of impact drills is even lower, sometimes achieving less than 1 meter of penetration per day.
The performance of rotary drilling rigs is slightly better but still unsatisfactory. Rotary drilling rigs drive the drill rod and drill bit to rotate through a power unit, cutting through the soil. In positive circulation rotary drilling, the drill cuttings are transported from the bottom of the borehole to the surface by mud, while in reverse circulation rotary drilling, a vacuum is created inside the drill rod using a mud pump, and the cuttings are suctioned back to the surface through the inner cavity of the drill rod. Under normal geological conditions, rotary drilling rigs can drill 8–10 meters per day. However, the drilling speed of rotary rigs is significantly influenced by factors such as mud properties and formation conditions. In collapsible formations like sand layers, to prevent borehole collapse, the drilling speed must be reduced, and mud parameters must be strictly controlled, further lowering construction efficiency. In a medium-sized photovoltaic power station project, if rotary drilling rigs are used for pile foundation construction, the drilling phase alone may take several months, severely impacting the overall project timeline.
(2) High and persistently elevated costs
Traditional construction methods involve high costs in terms of equipment, materials, and labor. Although impact drills have relatively lower equipment prices, their cost per meter for single-hole drilling is the highest. This is primarily due to the slow drilling speed of impact drills, which leads to extended construction periods and continuous accumulation of expenses such as equipment rentals and labor costs. Moreover, impact drills cause significant wear on drill bits during operation, necessitating frequent replacements and increasing material costs. According to statistics, in some mountainous photovoltaic projects, the cost per single-hole drilling using impact drills is 30% to 50% higher than that of other drilling methods.
Although rotary drilling rigs are relatively lower in cost compared to impact drilling rigs, their high consumption of slurry leads to a series of cost issues. Rotary drilling requires large amounts of slurry for borehole wall protection and cuttings removal, with expenses incurred in slurry preparation, transportation, and disposal. Preparing slurry involves purchasing materials such as bentonite and soda ash, as well as equipping specialized mixing equipment. Transporting slurry necessitates vehicles and labor, while post-construction disposal of waste slurry incurs additional costs, and improper disposal may result in environmental fines. Additionally, during drilling, the borehole wall forms a thick mud cake due to slurry action, which affects the friction between the pile and soil. To ensure foundation bearing capacity, sometimes increasing pile diameter or length is required, further raising material costs.
In the field of photovoltaic pile foundation construction, rotary drilling rigs, with their excellent performance and unique technical advantages, have become key equipment for improving construction efficiency, bringing new development opportunities to the industry.
（1） Powerful device performance
The rotary drilling rig has a high degree of automation and mechanization, and the operation is very simple. It adopts a track type fully hydraulic self-propelled design, equipped with advanced computer operating system and a complete hydraulic system, which can achieve precise control. At the construction site, it can easily move on its own, stand on its own mast, and move and align holes conveniently and quickly. Taking XCMG XR320D rotary drilling rig as an example, it adopts advanced intelligent control system, which can achieve automated operation, reduce the possibility of human errors, and improve construction safety. The intelligent operation interface also makes the operation more convenient and intuitive, greatly improving construction efficiency. Moreover, rotary drilling rigs usually use telescopic drill rods, saving manpower and time for adding drill rods, with less auxiliary time and high time utilization. This efficient equipment performance has laid a solid foundation for rapid construction.
（2） Flexible drilling method
Rotary drilling rigs can flexibly configure different types of drill bits according to different geological conditions to adapt to complex and diverse geological environments. In cohesive soil layers, long drill barrels can be used to accelerate drilling speed; For formations with high sand and gravel content, short drill barrels can be used and mud walls can be installed to control drilling speed and prevent hole collapse; For formations containing isolated rocks, boulders, and harder rocks, long and short spiral drill bits can be used for treatment. After loosening, the drill barrel can be replaced to continue drilling. In a photovoltaic project in a mountainous area, there are a large number of isolated and hard rocks in the geological strata, making traditional drilling rig construction difficult. The rotary drilling rig, equipped with embedded spiral drill bits, successfully broke hard rock layers such as boulders and isolated rocks in the hole, and successfully completed the pile foundation construction task, fully demonstrating the advantages of its flexible drilling method.
（3） The time dividend brought by efficiency
The efficient operation of rotary drilling rig significantly shortens the construction period of photovoltaic pile foundation. Under general geological conditions, the drilling speed of rotary drilling rigs can reach 10-15 meters per hour, which is 3-5 times that of traditional rotary drilling rigs. In a photovoltaic power plant project with an installed capacity of 50 megawatts, if traditional rotary drilling machines are used for pile foundation construction, the drilling process may take 3-4 months; By using a rotary drilling rig, it only takes 1-2 months to complete, greatly shortening the overall project duration. The shortened construction period not only reduces the allocation of management costs, but also accelerates capital turnover, enabling the project to be put into operation faster and generate economic benefits. At the same time, efficient construction also improves equipment utilization, reduces idle equipment costs, and brings tangible benefits to the enterprise.
Cost control is one of the key factors for the success of photovoltaic pile foundation construction. The rotary drilling rig has become a powerful tool for achieving low-cost construction due to its unique advantages in equipment investment, consumables and energy utilization, and quality assurance.
（1） Cost effectiveness of equipment investment
Although the purchase or leasing cost of rotary drilling rigs is relatively high, they have significant cost-effectiveness advantages in terms of long-term and overall construction efficiency. The purchase price of a medium-sized rotary drilling rig may be in the millions of yuan, and the rental price varies depending on the model and lease period, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan per month. However, its efficient construction capability can complete a large number of pile foundation construction tasks in a short period of time. Taking a large-scale photovoltaic power plant project as an example, if traditional drilling rigs are used, multiple equipment may need to be invested and the construction period may be long. The overall rental or purchase cost of equipment, combined with long-term labor, management, and other costs, can accumulate significantly. The rotary drilling rig only requires a small quantity, and with its ability to quickly form holes, it can complete the same amount of work in a shorter period of time, greatly reducing the construction period, thereby reducing the idle time of equipment and other expenses such as labor costs, and spreading the equipment cost to more engineering quantities, reducing the construction cost of unit pile foundation.
（2） Careful budgeting of consumables and energy
In terms of energy consumption, rotary drilling rigs are mainly powered by diesel. Although their fuel consumption fluctuates due to geological conditions, drilling parameters, and operating habits, compared to some traditional drilling rigs, while improving efficiency, the energy consumption per unit workload is not high. Moreover, with the development of technology, some new rotary drilling rigs are continuously optimized in energy-saving design, such as the SWDM520EE extended range rotary drilling rig launched by Shanhe Intelligent. The daily power consumption in pure electric mode is about 1000 kWh, and the energy consumption cost is more than 80% lower than that of the same level of fuel rotary drilling, further reducing energy costs.
In terms of consumables, the amount of mud used by rotary drilling rigs is significantly less than that of traditional rotary drilling rigs. In some areas with good geological conditions, rotary drilling rigs can even use dry or semi dry construction methods, which basically do not require mud, greatly saving the cost of mud preparation, transportation, and processing. For the wear and tear of drilling tools (drill rods, drill bits), rotary drilling rigs can be optimized according to different geological conditions. In soft soil formations, drilling tool wear is relatively small; In hard rock formations, by selecting appropriate drill bit materials and structures, such as using drill teeth with high hardness and good wear resistance, configuring drilling tools reasonably, and adopting graded drilling methods, the wear and tear of drilling tools can be effectively reduced, the service life can be extended, and the cost of consumable replacement can be reduced.
（3） Invisible savings under quality assurance
The rotary drilling rig has high drilling quality, which brings significant hidden cost savings to the construction of photovoltaic pile foundations. Its advanced automation control system and precise drilling technology can strictly control indicators such as aperture, verticality, and sediment at the bottom of the hole. In a certain photovoltaic power station project, the pile foundation constructed using a rotary drilling rig has a hole diameter deviation controlled within a very small range, a verticality error not exceeding 0.5%, and a sediment thickness at the bottom of the hole far below the specification requirements. This ensures the reliable bearing capacity of the pile foundation and greatly reduces rework caused by quality issues.
Rework not only requires additional manpower, material resources, and time, but may also affect the progress of the entire project and cause indirect economic losses. The high-quality drilling effect of rotary drilling machines avoids the generation of these additional costs. At the same time, high-quality construction quality helps to enhance the credibility and reputation of enterprises in the industry, win more follow-up projects for enterprises, and bring potential economic benefits.
In the Itinpi Photovoltaic Project in Zambia, the complex local climate conditions and variable geological conditions pose great challenges to pile foundation construction. At the beginning of the project, traditional construction methods were used, which resulted in low construction efficiency, slow progress, and continuously rising costs. After attempting to use a rotary drilling rig, the situation significantly improved.
The rotary drilling rig, with its powerful power system and advanced drilling technology, can operate efficiently under various geological conditions. When encountering hard rock layers, traditional drilling rigs require a lot of time and effort for crushing operations, while rotary drilling rigs are equipped with special drill bits that can quickly penetrate rocks, with drilling speeds several times faster than traditional drilling rigs. In soft soil layers, the rotary drilling rig avoids problems such as hole collapse through precise control, ensuring construction quality and progress.
According to project statistics, the use of rotary drilling rigs has increased the efficiency of photovoltaic foundation construction by 20%. The pile foundation construction task, which was originally expected to take a long time to complete, was completed ahead of schedule with the assistance of the rotary drilling rig, winning valuable time for the smooth progress of the entire project. Moreover, due to the high quality of drilling by rotary drilling machines, the need for rework due to quality issues in the later stage has been reduced, saving a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. After calculation, compared with traditional construction methods, the use of rotary drilling rigs has reduced the overall cost of the project by about 15%, and the economic benefits are very significant.
Similarly, in the Yunnan Yingjiang Photovoltaic EPC General Contracting Project, due to its location in an ecological tea garden with complex terrain and sensitive ecological environment, the construction equipment and process requirements are extremely high. The project team innovatively adopted a combination of handheld rotary drilling machines for drilling and manual excavation of soil and debris, achieving good results. The handheld rotary drilling rig is lightweight and can accurately penetrate soil layers through high-frequency vibration and rotation dual-mode drive. The single hole operation time only takes 15-20 minutes, which is more than three times more efficient than traditional impact drilling.
The "point excavation" strategy adopted during construction, combined with manual excavation technology, does not require surface vegetation cleaning, avoiding soil compaction caused by mechanical rolling, reducing the rate of surface vegetation damage by 95%, and achieving the organic integration of clean energy construction and tea garden ecological protection. Moreover, this innovative construction technique also performs well in cost control. By optimizing the construction process and equipment configuration, the construction cost has been reduced by 20% and the construction period has been shortened by 15%, setting a green benchmark for mountain photovoltaic projects and fully demonstrating the efficiency and low-cost advantages of rotary drilling rigs in the construction of photovoltaic pile foundations in complex environments.
The rotary drilling rig, with its significant advantages of efficient operation and cost control, has demonstrated strong competitiveness in the field of photovoltaic pile foundation construction and has become an important force in promoting the development of the photovoltaic industry. The excellent performance of rotary drilling rigs in different geological conditions and complex environments, from the Itinpi Photovoltaic Project in Zambia to the Yingjiang Photovoltaic EPC General Contracting Project in Yunnan, fully demonstrates their outstanding capabilities in improving construction efficiency, reducing costs, ensuring construction quality, and achieving green construction.
With the continuous growth of global demand for renewable energy, the photovoltaic industry has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the global installed capacity of photovoltaics will experience several fold growth in the next decade, which means that the construction of photovoltaic power plants will welcome more projects and larger scales. Under such a development trend, rotary drilling rigs will play a more critical role in the construction of photovoltaic pile foundations.
On the one hand, with the continuous advancement of technology, rotary drilling rigs will develop towards intelligence, automation, and green direction. The intelligent rotary drilling rig will be equipped with more advanced sensors and control systems, which can monitor construction parameters in real time, automatically adjust drilling strategies, and further improve construction efficiency and quality. The increase in automation will reduce manual operations, lower labor intensity, and lower the risk of human error. Green development will enable rotary drilling rigs to adopt more environmentally friendly power sources and construction processes, reduce their impact on the environment, and meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements.
On the other hand, rotary drilling rigs will continuously adapt to various complex construction environments and diverse construction needs. Whether in remote desert areas, mountainous regions, or ecologically sensitive wetlands and forests, rotary drilling rigs will provide reliable support for the construction of photovoltaic power plants with their flexible adaptability and efficient operational capabilities. At the same time, in response to different geological conditions and pile foundation requirements, rotary drilling rigs will develop more personalized construction plans and supporting equipment to achieve more accurate and efficient pile foundation construction.
As a powerful assistant in the construction of photovoltaic pile foundations, rotary drilling rigs will have great potential in the future development of the photovoltaic industry. It will not only bring higher efficiency and lower costs to the construction of photovoltaic power plants, but also help the photovoltaic industry play a greater role in the global energy transition and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals.
