Nextracker announced it has shipped and delivered what it calls the industry’s first U.S.-manufactured solar trackers which it expects to achieve “100% domestic content value” under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The first project to receive these domestic content trackers is SB Energy’s Pelican’s Jaw project, a 570 MW solar and 954 MWh storage project currently under construction by SOLV Energy.
Nextracker began investing in local manufacturing infrastructure in 2021 to establish a secure supply chain following disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with its manufacturing partners, the company has now expanded or opened more than 25 U.S. factories with over 30 GW of annual capacity.
“Delivering the industry’s first trackers with 100% domestic content value is a huge milestone for our customers, our supply partners, and Nextracker,” said Dan Shugar, Nextracker founder and CEO. “It demonstrates our ability to ramp and scale operations that directly benefit our customers—and sets a new standard for local supply chain resilience and operational excellence. By systematically focusing our manufacturing partnerships close to our customer project sites, we secure the supply chain and provide superior on-time delivery and cost savings for project development and construction. We also significantly de-carbonize our products by incorporating clean steel manufactured in the United States.
In early 2023, Nextracker completed an initial public offering on the Nasdaq that valued the company at $638 million. At the beginning of this year, Nextracker finalized its separation from Singapore-based Flex Ltd. Nextracker announced the spin-off plans last October, in addition to its Q2 financial results.
Nextracker CEO Dan Shugar appeared on the Factor This! podcast last year, where he discussed his journey from an engineer in the solar group at Pacific Gas & Electric in the late 1980s to leading PowerLight to a $335 million acquisition by SunPower. He later served as CEO of module manufacturer Solaria before spinning off the company’s tracker technology to create Nextracker. Shugar also appeared on Factor This! in 2022 and discussed Nextracker’s decision to invest heavily in U.S. manufacturing amid supply chain constraints and trade disputes facing the solar industry.
In August, Nextracker notched its sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year, double-digit revenue growth. The company increased revenue year-over-year by 50% to $720 million in the last quarter. Most of Nextracker’s revenue — 71% — came from sales in the U.S. Nextracker is also dipping its toe in new water with the acquisition of solar foundation manufacturer Ojjo, which supports project development on hard rock terrain.
Earlier in June, Nextracker and Unimacts, a provider of industrial manufacturing and supply chain solutions, jointly announced another new factory near Las Vegas, their second such endeavor in about nine months. The new 160,000-square-foot facility in Sloan, Nevada, will produce steel torque tubes used to hold and rotate solar panels in solar power plants.
Last year, Nextracker opened a dedicated steel production line in Las Vegas with Unimacts, another in Memphis with MSS Steel Tubes USA, and a self-powered controller and high-voltage power supply line in California with Asteelflash. It has more production lines in Texas, Arizona, and Illinois.
