Customer stories
How Ideematec achieved 3x faster layout production with PVcase
January 20, 2026
How Valmont Solar reduced earthwork CAPEX by 46% with PVcase
Discover how Valmont Solar used PVcase to validate their single-string tracker's performance on steep Brazilian terrain, achieving a 46% reduction in earthwork CAPEX.
Customer
Valmont Solar
Industry
Renewable energy
Employees
11000+
Key results
33%
less earthwork volume
46%
drop in CAPEX impact of earthwork
100%
streamlined feasibility on complex land
The Customer
Learn more about Valmot Solar
Valmont Solar stands as a reliable, globally operating entity, backed by the strength of the Valmont Industries Group — an 80-year-old leader with a vast manufacturing network. With a robust history dating back to 2014 in Brazil, Valmont Solar was a key player in the country's first utility-scale solar plant. Today, the company continues to demonstrate its expertise, boasting almost 3 gigawatts of installed projects in Brazil and nearly 1 gigawatt across other South American nations, confirming its position as a strong and experienced partner in the solar market.
Steep terrain, higher risk, tighter margins
Valmont Solar faced the industry’s toughest new reality: the easy land is gone. In Brazil's distributed generation (DG) market, developers are increasingly forced onto complex, steeply sloped terrains. This difficult topography amplifies project risk, turning basic ground preparation into a major cost driver and potential project killer. Compounding the problem, conventional multi-string trackers used by competitors demand excessive cut-and-fill operations, unnecessarily spiking CAPEX.
Scarce, irregular terrain
The growing distributed grid market in Brazil is characterized by complex, steeply sloped, and far-from-the-grid terrains, a natural consequence of the development of easier sites.
Excessive earthwork
Competitor designs, often using long multi-string trackers, require far greater and more costly cut-and-fill operations on sloped sites, drastically increasing CAPEX.
Need for validation
Valmont Solar needed a precise and trusted solution to accurately assess the earthwork impact of their shorter, single-string tracker design compared to the market standard, directly linking design optimization to reduced CAPEX.
Market volatility
Challenges related to regulation and network limitations in Brazil make CAPEX reduction a decisive factor in securing project viability and ensuring a faster return on investment.
”Earthwork is one of the earliest and most sensible cost drivers in utility solar, and it can pound downstream. So reducing cut and fill volumes with PVcase by this magnitude means fewer machine hours, fewer operators on site, less hauling, less fuel, and fewer opportunities for construction delays.”
Ramon Gomes
Executive Director, Valmont Solar
.jpg/ea49755cd748a654a628bb1be817a1f4/voltalia-testimonial-(1).webp)
Precision design in AutoCAD to cut earthworks and de-risk buildability
Valmont Solar needed a definitive edge: a design solution that could expertly navigate these irregular sites — specifically, a way to validate the superiority of their single-string tracker architecture. Valmont Solar leveraged the precision of PVcase Ground Mount's advanced capabilities inside AutoCAD to prove the efficiency of the technology on steep slopes, transforming unviable land into profitable assets and decisively reducing earthwork costs.
High-resolution terrain modeling
The team utilized PVcase Ground Mount's ability to import and work with highly accurate terrain data to create a realistic and precise 3D representation of the sloped site.Optimized slope-aware layouts
The solution enabled the generation of slope-segmented layouts that adhere to the specific, more flexible constraints of Valmont Solar’s unique single-string tracker.Advanced ground grading analysis
Valmont Solar controlled the ground grading simulation based on the tracker's pile height tolerances, resulting in a powerful calculation of the minimum necessary cut-and-fill volumes.Direct CAPEX quantification
With PVcase, the team accurately generated and compared the total cut-and-fill volumes for both Valmont Solar and competitor designs, decisively translating the civil engineering benefit directly into quantifiable CAPEX savings.
Ground Mount
Design construction-ready projects 90% faster. PVcase Ground Mount, built on AutoCAD, automates utility-scale solar design, adapting complex layouts to real-word terrain with unmatched accuracy.
Turning “too steep” sites into viable projects
By implementing PVcase Ground Mount, Valmont Solar eliminated the guesswork from site assessment, expertly modeling their projects on complex terrain and proving the economic and operational superiority of their short-string tracker architecture.
33% less earthwork volume
The single-string tracker design, expertly validated with PVcase, required 33% less total earthwork volume (cut and fill combined) compared to the competitor's longer multi-string configuration.46% drop in CAPEX impact
The earthwork portion of the project's overall CAPEX was powerfully reduced by 46% when leveraging Valmont Solar’s optimized design with PVcase.Faster project certainty
With PVcase, Valmont Solar gained a crucial operational advantage by decisively lowering the financial exposure and risk of deviations during the pre-construction design phase, leading to faster project certainty.Lowered construction volatility
Reducing cut-and-fill volumes enabled the stabilization of the project budget, mitigating volatility and freeing up capital for other essential needs.Streamlined feasibility
The fast and accurate analysis enabled Valmont Solar to quickly model and validate project feasibility on sites that would have otherwise been deemed unviable due to terrain and earthwork costs.
”In utility-scale solar, fractional CAPEX improvements matter enormously. Reducing the earthwork's share of CAPEX effectively stabilizes the project, lowering financial exposure in a category that often experiences the most volatility. This is the promise of precise design optimization: you gain control over cost categories that traditionally feel uncontrollable.”
Ramon Gomes
Executive Director, Valmont Solar
Validate your tracker and terrain strategy before construction
See how PVcase Ground Mount enables you to quantify earthwork risk, optimize layouts, and protect CAPEX on complex sites.