Terrasmart will begin producing ground screws for solar racking foundations in-house at its manufacturing facility in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The move to manufacture the screws in-house is part of its larger vertical integration strategy, which also includes increasing the on-shoring of its supply chain, Terrasmart said. Vertical integration makes supply chains more resilient, Terrasmart said, and maximizes the availability for domestic racking components.
“Terrasmart was one of the first providers of ground screw foundations in the U.S., bringing additional reliability and performance to sites in challenging conditions and opening new opportunities for ground-mount solar,” Ed McKiernan, president, Terrasmart said in a statement.
“Moving domestic ground screw production in-house streamlines our supply chain, maximizing availability for qualifying solar projects to meet domestic content thresholds to benefit our customers, the solar industry, and the wider U.S. economy,” McKiernan said.
According to Terrasmart, its ground screw manufacturing capacity is on track to sustain nearly 500 MWs of new solar projects.
The Cincinnati facility will also add three different sizes of ground screws to its list.
The company said, “Ground screws are a crucial type of solar foundation because they are more effective in tougher terrains and in a wide variety of soils, in addition to the driven piles and ballasted foundations that make up Terrasmart’s foundation portfolio.”
Though there is no one-size-fits-all answer to ground screws, piles or ballasts, ground screws are advantageous in their ability to provide stability and reduce risk on projects with tricky subsurfaces, deep frost depths and rocky terrain.
Terrasmart was acquired by New York-based Gibraltar Industries in 2021. Terrasmart contributes to more than 25 GWs of solar deployed across 6,000 solar projects, according to the company.
Also read: Navigating the foundation: risk vs. reward
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