Since its name change from Nextracker to Nextpower last November, the company has solidified its evolution from a solar tracker supplier to a full-platform provider of integrated energy solutions.
Case in point are the recent acquisitions made over the past month and a half with Zigor Corporation (power conversion), Prevalon (BESS) and Zimmermann (German solar provider of fixed tilt trackers, carports, agriPV and floating solar solutions).
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“They’re making good on the rebrand from Nextracker, right? The name change wasn’t just cosmetic. It signalled a move from tracker specialist to solar infrastructure, everything under the panel. Zimmerman’s their biggest acquisition,” explains Alessio Mastrandrea, industry analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Expected to close in the second half of Nextpower’s fiscal 2027, the transaction comprises cash and stock totalling up to €330 million (US$376 million), which is more than US$10 million above the Prevalon acquisition last month, Nextpower’s second-largest acquisition.
A response to energy security
Mastrandrea added that Nextpower was really “beating the drum” on the two main themes that Bloomberg Intelligence has been covering this year, which are energy security, highlighted by the war in Iran and the transition to power AI data centres. For the former, the Prevalon acquisition was tied to that topic as Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextpower, mentioned last month when the company announced the acquisition:
“Together with our recently announced and complementary power conversion acquisition, we expect that Prevalon’s BESS platform will open new market opportunities for Nextpower in AI data center power supply applications.”
Whereas the Zimmermann acquisition is more of a response to energy security, says Mastrandrea. “Zimmermann is more on the energy security piece. They already operate in 45 countries. This adds another 15.”
European expansion
Moreover, the Zimmermann was a natural expansion for Nextpower in terms of increasing its market share. Mastrandrea explains that the company spent the last couple of years increasing its market share in the PV tracker sector, and did the same with the eBOS market with the Bentek acquisition.
The company has a physical footprint in Latin America, with its research and development (R&D) facility, in India with another R&D facility and in Saudi Arabia, where it will open a 12GW tracker manufacturing facility in the second quarter of 2026.
“They’re just kind of like an octopus spreading as far as they can really go, but I like that they’re moving not just into Europe, but into fixed trackers, because fixed trackers take up about 50% of installations, and Europe doesn’t really have many national champions in solar.”
Mastrandrea mentions a few European solar companies, such as inverter manufacturer SMA Solar and the defunct Swiss-based manufacturer Meyer Burger, but overall, the European market is mostly served by Chinese companies.
Financially speaking, the acquisition could potentially add US$300 million in revenue and US$45 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) on an annual basis and is likely to grow as it scales up, says Mastrandrea, adding that the company has a habit of under-promising and over-delivering when it comes to guidance.
“If I’m tracking correctly, last year they increased guidance three or four times, and for next year they’ve already increased it once or twice.
“They’re going to blow past their expectations, and that’s why they’re performing so well.”
Mastrandrea adds that the Zimmermann acquisition is a way for the US company to get “back to their roots” with fixed tilt and that “they know trackers almost better than anybody else”. But it also comes with expertise in other areas, such as agrivoltaics, floating solar, and carports.
That last one, Mastrandrea sees as an interesting market for Nextpower to implement in the US, as it is currently underserved.
“They can take that know-how from Europe, and then bring it over to the US. It will actually benefit their US business more than maybe people are expecting.”
What next: inverters?
When asked what other areas of the European market Nextpower could be interested in, Mastrandrea said that the only thing missing at this point for the US company was inverters. “That’s something they can get into.”
He highlights that there are a few Western inverter companies with a strong presence in the European market, such as SMA Solar, SolarEdge, and Enphase.
However, Mastrandrea doesn’t expect Nextpower to get into the residential segment, but rather to remain in utility-scale. “The only thing I could think of that they might move into is maybe inverters with their eBOS pivot.
“If they want to really do everything under the solar panel, that’s the one,” adds Mastrandrea.
Prevalon acquisition
On the Prevalon acquisition, our colleagues at Energy-storage.news (subscription required) spoke earlier with Shugar and Prevalon CEO and president Tom Cornell.
Although most of the acquisitions Nextpower has made in the past ended up fully integrated into the company, Shugar said that Prevalon will work as a standalone division.
“We know a lot about solar and power conversion, but the intrinsic battery storage part was something that we didn’t have that much experience in, so we wanted a team that brought that, and the idea is that they’re going to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary,” said Shugar to Energy-storage.news.
