US solar tracker manufacturer Nextracker has completed an expansion of its manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, US, increasing the manufacturing capacity to 4GW.
The expansion plan was completed in collaboration with steel processing provider JM Steel, a subsidiary of infrastructure product provider Jennmar.
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Featuring technology such as solar tube lines with automated drilling and swedging, a metal-forming technique in which the metal of one part is deformed to fit around another part, the Nextracker-dedicated manufacturing plant produces critical steel components to support the demand from Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic.
Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextracker, said the new manufacturing plant will produce core components of the company’s new low carbon tracker offering announced recently.
Last week, the company announced it had received confirmation that the manufacturing of its NX Horizon series of trackers produces a 35% smaller carbon footprint than other processes, according to “a third-party verified analysis”.
After completing the expansion of this manufacturing plant in Leetsdale, Jennmar’s investment in support of the US solar industry has exceeded US$100 million over the last four years.
For Nextracker, the latest expansion marks 20 new or expanded US manufacturing partner facilities since 2021 and enables it to provide over 25GW of US solar tracker capacity each year.
Aside from this manufacturing plant, Nextracker also signed an agreement with Australian tube and pipe manufacturer Orrcon Steel in March to manufacture components of trackers in Australia. According to Nextracker, “critical steel components” will be produced from BlueScope’s steel coil at Orrcon Steel’s Salisbury Tube mill in Brisbane. BlueScope is a steel supplier and manufacturer and owns Orrcon Steel.
| PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the third edition of Large Scale Solar USA Summit in Austin, Texas 1-2 May. With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) targeting US$369 billion for clean energy and US$40 billion for manufacturing, the solar industry has never been brighter. The IRA, securing financing for future projects or supply chain bottlenecks will be among the discussions at this year’s event. For more information, including how to attend, please go to the official website. |