This morning, the world’s largest tracker maker announced that it has signed contracts to supply 634 MW of its single-axis trackers to First Solar projects in California and Texas that will utilize the company’s new 1.2 x 2 meter Series 6 module.
NEXTracker will supply its NX Horizon trackers to the 193 MW Rosamond and 129 MW Willow projects in California, as well as the mammoth 312 MW Phoebe project in Texas, which will be built by First Solar’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) team using the Series 6.
NEXTracker is also working with First Solar to supply a new racking technology for the Series 6, which includes custom panel clamps for alignment. The company says these clamps, for which it has applied for a patent, are designed for a rapid installation.
This will be an important consideration, as First Solar has identified installation cost savings as a main driver for its $1 billion retooling to produce the much larger Series 6.
Additionally, NEXTracker notes that its mounting solution can handle a wide range of environments, including wind speeds up to 130 miles per hour, a 15% north-south slope and high corrosion environments.
This is far from the first collaboration between the two companies. The two previously partnered on more than 1 GW of projects that utilized the NX Horizon and First Solar’s Series 4 modules, which likely influenced First Solar’s choice to use NEXTracker on these Series 6 projects.
“For the past year we’ve invested in partnering with the right suppliers who could complement our Series 6 technology in terms of innovation in system performance,” said Georges Antoun, chief commercial officer of First Solar.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.