Solar tracker supplier Nextracker has opened a solar tracker research and development (R&D) facility in Hyderabad, India.
The facility, dubbed the Center for Solar Excellence, spans 13 acres and will feature a 30,000 square foot laboratory, a comprehensive solar tracker installation and training facilities covering the entire lifecycle of a PV project. It will also foster workforce development by delivering installer training courses to engineering procurement and construction companies (EPCs) and third-party installers on solar tracker best practices for design, installation, commissioning, software, and operations and maintenance (O&M) of advanced PV tracker systems.
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This is the third R&D facility that Nextracker has in operations, with one in the US, near the company’s headquarters in Northern California and another in Sao Paulo, Brazil that was opened in 2022.
Howard Wenger, president at Nextracker, said: “Nextracker is further deepening its commitment to developing solar technology in India with a new Center for Solar Excellence in Hyderabad. This state-of-the-art facility advances our ability to optimize our local customer’s needs into the product design.”
“Through this new centre, we aim to develop high-performance solar trackers that significantly enhance energy capture, particularly during critical peak periods in the early morning and late afternoon,” added Wenger. Earlier this year, Wenger spoke with PV Tech Premium about the importance of investing in R&D and how it allowed the company to bring new products to market—both hardware and software—as well as driving down the levelised cost of energy.
In India, the company has an annual solar tracker manufacturing capacity of over 10GW, with 95% of the tracker’s components manufactured in India.
Nextracker’s expansions in 2024
The inauguration of a third R&D facility in India is the latest development in Nextracker’s expansion this year. Earlier this year, the company expanded its foundation business with the acquisition of two foundation companies: Ojjo in June and Solar Pile International in August. This was further enhanced with Nextracker’s launch of NX Anchor, its new tracker foundation system it unveiled last month during RE+ in Anaheim.
This is in addition to the company’s continued growth in US domestic manufacturing capacity, with a second PV tracker manufacturing line in Nevada—in collaboration with industrial manufacturing services company Unimacts—less than a year after opening the first and the expansion of its plant in Pennsylvania to 4GW.
Furthermore, the company remained—for a ninth consecutive year—the largest solar tracker supplier in 2023, with a 23% market share. Global shipments of solar trackers hit 92GW in 2023, a 23% increase from the previous year due to a strong year in the utility-scale segment globally, according to a report from research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
