Chinese solar tracker manufacturer Arctech has signed an agreement to provide 242MW worth of solar trackers for an upcoming facility in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
Arctech struck the deal with Sterling and Wilson, an Indian construction company, to supply its SkyLine II solar tracking system for what Arctech called a “strategic partner”. In 2021, the company provided enough Skyline trackers to Rajasthan to cover 1.7GW of solar panels, and Arctech has reaffirmed its commitment to solar investment in the state.
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“Arctech will continue to operate, develop and deeply cultivate local supply chain in the Indian market, optimising efficiency and reducing the cost of solar projects to proactively respond to the Indian government’s mission [to install] 500GW [of renewable power] by 2030,” said Gail Chen, general manager of East Asia and India at Arctech.
Solar trackers aim to improve the efficiency of existing solar farms, and technologies such as these are of great interest to countries aiming for ambitious renewable power targets, such as India. The state plans to install 280GW of solar power by the end of this decade, up from 63GW at the end of 2022, according to Mercom.
Arctech’s SkyLine II product functions in the same manner as other solar trackers, connecting panels to a movable bar, so that panels can move to face the sun as it moves across the sky. By facing panels directly at the sun for more of the day, a solar farm can become more efficient, and generate more electricity.
According to a 2022 paper published in Research, Society and Development, the implementation of a single-axis tracker, which can move panels in one orientation, could see a solar farm generate 28% more power compared to farms without trackers.
Solar farms that use two-axis trackers, which enable panels to move in two directions, can see power generation increase by up to 36%, and improvements in efficiency such as these could be critical to meeting clean power targets.
Arctech’s announcement follows the news that it has committed trackers for 1.5GW of solar power in Saudi Arabia. Last month, the company also announced that it had agreed to supply SkyLine II trackers for 420MW of solar power in Surel, in India’s Gujarat State, as part of a deal with Torrent Power.
