After a strong 2023 for utility-scale solar in most regions across the world, PV tracker shipments reached 92GW by the end of the year, up 28% from 2022, according to research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.
Wood Mackenzie’s ‘Global solar PV tracker market share’ report highlights that the top ten vendors accounted for 90% of the global market share in 2023.
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For a ninth consecutive year, US tracker manufacturers Nextracker (23% market share) and Array Technologies (16%) have led the market in 2023, with GameChange Solar (12%) closing the podium. This is the first time GameChange Solar ranked in the top three, according to Wood Mackenzie, as the company posted an annual growth of 55% in 2023.
Nextracker continued to extend its lead on Array Technologies with 20% annual growth, as it keeps increasing its manufacturing capacity. The company recently built a second tracker manufacturing plant in Nevada, in collaboration with industrial manufacturing and supply chain solutions Unimatics. This second plant comes less than a year after opening the first one ahead of RE+ in September 2023, and for which PV Tech was in attendance.
This is Nextracker’s latest capacity expansion, as it also increased capacity to 4GW at its manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania, last April. On top of increasing its manufacturing capacity in the US, the company recently acquired the US-based solar foundation company Ojjo to expand its utility-scale solar foundation business.
The three US-based tracker manufacturers alone accounted for over half of the global tracker shipments and 90% of the US market, which is the largest individual market for PV trackers. The country has experienced a 10% year-over-year increase in 2023 with over 37GWdc of trackers shipped.
This growth was boosted by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives, which kickstarted the construction of many utility-scale solar PV projects across the US, according to the report.
Spain leads tracker market in Europe
Spain accounted for over half of Europe’s demand for solar PV tracker, with Spanish manufacturer PV Hardware leading the ranking in shipments throughout Europe, and behind only Solar Steel in the Spanish market. Both Spanish companies ranked in the top ten, along fellow Spanish firms Soltec and Axial. All four companies benefitted from both domestic and international demand, particularly in Europe and Latin America.
Despite installing 216GW of solar PV capacity in 2023, China’s tracker market dropped to 4.3GW last year. The country experienced an increased demand for fixed-tilt products due to low installation costs as a main driver for developers in China.
Another recent report, from global market data and benchmarking provider S&P Global, estimated the solar PV tracker market to install over 750GW between 2024 and 2030. North America is expected to be the leading market globally with a 39% share, followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with 31%, the Asia Pacific region with 22% and South America with 8%.
