US solar tracker dominance offers learnings for other markets
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Trackers dominate U.S. utility-scale solar but could they become the norm elsewhere? Read on to find out more. Also below, Chinese-owned factories are popping up in the U.S. and lawmakers want to block them from a key subsidy, while soaring capacity prices in the U.S. PJM market show that more clean power is needed.
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US solar tracker dominance offers learnings for other markets
Already dominating the U.S. market, solar trackers are increasingly being used globally as suppliers leverage cost savings and adapt technology to less favourable sites.
Spearheaded by U.S. developers, the use of bifacial solar modules combined with single-axis trackers could provide the lowest solar costs in most of the world, the latest analysis by the International Energy Agency's PV Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) shows.
Bifacial modules offer higher yields from using both sides while single-axis trackers follow the sun from East to West, adapting the orientation of PV modules to optimise yield.
Bifacial solar modules combined with single-axis tracker systems reduce the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) by 16% below conventional monofacial systems, depending on site factors, IEA PVPS said in its report.
A total of 94% of all new utility-scale PV capacity added in the U.S. in 2022 used single-axis tracking, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Tracker suppliers have reduced costs by optimising the amount of steel and achieving economies of scale.
Forecast US solar installations by segment
While the U.S. tracker market is booming, global uptake is slower. Bifacial modules and cells will soon dominate global solar supply but the use of tracker systems is set to rise at a slower rate, from 40% in 2022 to 50% in 2030, IEA PVPS said.
U.S. developers have typically capitalised on good land availability to build larger projects than in Europe and these projects tend to use trackers more than smaller projects, David Feldman, NREL Senior Financial Analyst told Reuters Events. In addition, the global supply of trackers is heavily concentrated in the U.S., led by suppliers Nextracker, Array Technologies and GameChange Solar.
“India and China also have been heavily weighted towards large-scale applications but have favored cheaper systems with less [operations and maintenance]," he said.
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As solar technology matures, other countries are starting to adopt trackers in larger volumes, Feldman said. Global solar tracker shipments climbed 28% in 2023 to 92 GW, data from Wood Mackenzie shows.
"There have been technical and logistical improvements, and installers have more experience putting them together," he said.
Falling costs
Growing volumes of component orders has helped tracker suppliers reduce costs over the last decade, a spokesperson for Array Technologies said.
Trackers are manufactured from steel and price hikes following the coronavirus pandemic have "softened over the past two years," Cody Norman, Vice President, Applications Engineering at Array, said.
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Solar development is spreading into new areas as the best sites become occupied, pressuring developers to find cost savings.
“Ideal project sites become less common, putting CAPEX cost pressure on solar plant components, including tracker systems," the Array spokesperson said.
On some sites, fixed-tilt systems without trackers remain the best option. These include smaller applications, landfill and brownfield sites, on difficult terrain and in "windy regions with wind load concerns, like Florida,” Feldman said.
Bifacial future
U.S. deployment of bifacial modules was boosted by a two-year exemption on import tariffs for bifacial modules but this ended in June, meaning bifacial modules are now subject to similar tariffs as monofacial modules.
At the same time, growing deployment of bifacial modules has seen costs fall in line with monofacial modules and they offer higher yield.
Commonly-used crystalline silicon (C-Si) cells offer inherent bifacial properties and a panel can be made bifacial by replacing the backsheet with back glass.
Bifacial modules were designed for crystalline silicon technologies but are now being developed for thin-film. U.S. supplier First Solar launched its first bifacial thin-film CdTe model in June 2023.
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IEA-PVPS predicts that bifacial modules will account for more than 70% of the global market by 2033 with most of the remainder represented by bifacial cells inside monofacial modules.
Global market share of monofacial and bifacial modules
Going forward, some developers may opt for monofacial modules due to strategic supply agreements already in place or federal incentives for U.S.-made content combined with a limited local production of bifacial modules, Norman noted.
Tracking the market
The use of local steel producers can also minimise costs and carbon emissions, IEA PVPS noted in its report.
U.S. manufacturers have been boosted tax credits in the Biden administration's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that aim to boost domestic clean tech production.
To mitigate steel prices, Array uses both domestic and global suppliers and buys direct from producers, Gary Bennett, Chief Integrated Supply Chain Officer, Array, said.
The company transforms steel coil into tubes in the U.S. to remain eligible for inflation act incentives, he said.
The group also employs “strategic spot market buying" and "financial hedging and futures where appropriate for certain customers and projects,” Bennett said.
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In the design, the company has incorporated multiple underlying layers for some components to reduce dependency on steel commodities, he noted.
Future advancements in tracker technologies are increasingly "focused on bifacial modules," Norman said.
Tracker suppliers are likely to focus more on improving performance and yield, than reducing costs.
Array is focused on “optimizing tracker operations for adverse conditions, such as variable topography or an overcast sky” and using innovative tracker solutions to protect PV modules from "extreme weather events like high winds, heavy snow and large hail storms,” Norman said.
Reporting by Neil Ford
Editing by Robin Sayles
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