Nextracker will supply 1.5GW of its solar trackers to US independent power producer (IPP) Silicon Ranch as part of a new agreement between the companies.
The deal, which includes an option to expand as Silicon Ranch’s portfolio grows, will see the trackers deployed at the IPP’s solar projects by the end of 2024.
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An emphasis on securing American-made trackers that feature US steel will enable Silicon Ranch to improve the carbon footprint of its supply chain while reducing logistics risks, the companies said.
Nextracker has responded to global supply disruptions by commissioning two US manufacturing facilities in the last two months: one in Texas and another in Arizona.
Silicon Ranch co-founder and CEO Reagan Farr said the tracker supply deal “enables us to decarbonise our supply chain and support additional investments in American manufacturing”.
The announcement comes after Nextracker unveiled in March a new terrain-following, single-axis tracker, the NX Horizon-XTR, which is designed to expand the addressable market of solar projects on sites with sloped and uneven land.
The technology yields a “more streamlined way” to build PV plants on varied terrain, allowing Silicon Ranch “to deliver high-quality solar projects and remain good stewards of the land at the same time”, said Nick de Vries, Silicon Ranch SVP of technology and asset management.
Tennessee-based Silicon Ranch raised US$775 million in new equity capital earlier this year to help progress its project pipeline as it looks to maintain a strategy of co-locating projects with regenerative agriculture.
The company has developed a programme to deploy holistic land-use practices on PV plants in the US, with grazing animals, plants and wildlife combining to enhance biodiversity and sequester carbon in the soil.
With a portfolio of more than 4GW of solar and battery storage contracted, under construction or operating across the US and Canada, Silicon Ranch last month signed a deal to procure 4GWdc of thin-film PV modules from First Solar.